Unattainable
by CrimsonBirdhouse
Summary: AU, InuKag In a world where humans and demons live in different worlds separated by a border, Kagome finds herself on the wrong side... Unfortunately for her, the only way back is with a badtempered hanyou for a guide. Rated for safety
1. Default Chapter

AN: Honestly, I'm not sure if I should've posted this yet, since I have those other two fics going, and Eye just beginning and all. But with the summer, I'm hoping that I'll have more time to write fanfiction, rather than essays.

I have many ideas stewing about it that large puff of cotton that I use as a brain. Here's another one of 'em. In fact, I have an entire two pages of general summaries, but most of 'em are crap.

…and is it just me, or are the things I've been writing starting with unhappy beginnings?

One more thing: Here, the label "Separatists" means people who want to keep demons and humans separate, thus the name. This title has nothing to do with the religious group at all. And "Sympathizers" are on the other end of the spectrum. Now that we've got that settled…

Disclaimer: Inuyasha + mine ≠ truth. (Who says math isn't fun?)

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Unattainable

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Chapter One: Across the Border

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"Just stay away!" Kagome screamed. With wide brown eyes, she watched in horror as her pursuers closed in around her, identical leers upon each shadowed face. "Look," she tried to bargain, "he's so small, he's not even worth your time, right?"

"Demon lover!" one of them hissed, eyes flashing in hate and fear at her bundle as he stepped into the dirty artificial light of the street lamp. "Demon lover! You're no better than the rest of 'em!" A tall man, he was the leader of the gang. "We ain't stoppin' 'til each an' every one of 'em's wiped out! Filthy scum!" he spat.

The others jeered in agreement and a sob of fear ripped from Kagome's throat. "Go away, please!" None of them relented. She clutched the tiny demon closer to her and fled, her breaths coming in ragged gasps. Their footsteps echoed behind her, their jeers and shouts hounding her around corners and around benches.

"Oh god, oh god," she mumbled incoherently, panic fueling her with energy. She ran without care, dashing down an alleyway and turning up a street. Dingy orange lights lit her way as she sprinted across a street and down the road. She could hear them coming after her, their sneers of contempt filling the empty nighttime streets with malignant clamour.

"Help!" She tried at the bottom of an apartment. She pressed the buzzer frantically. "Anyone! Please let me in! **Please**!" No one answered the door. She moved to the next house, glancing over her shoulder as the small mob approached. If they caught her, they'd kill her, and the little demon in her arms. "Come on! Open **up**!" She clawed at the door helplessly.

"They won't help you, **demon-lover**!" One man sneered as he came down the street. "No one likes a demon-lover!" With a ragged sob, she flung herself away from the door and rushed down the street again. The tiny bundle of life stirred in her grasp. Shadows blurred with the orange light of the streetlamps as she ran, but she couldn't escape them.

And suddenly, she was at the edge of town, she was surrounded, and her mind was a roaring blank of panic. "Please just leave me alone!" she begged as the men circled her, jeering and laughing at her. Some held baseball bats or lacrosse sticks; others had knives –she swallowed hard- and gold clubs. She never thought that this would happen to her. It was one of those things that you heard briefly mentioned on the news, something that happened to other people, and you didn't mention it. It wasn't supposed to be her.

"You've got nowhere left to run, **bitch**," the leader sneered, his face distorted by the shadows. "You and that bastard demon there, you're gonna die." They closed in around her, and Kagome pressed against the wall in a feeble attempt at escape, sobs coming quickly now as she looked for some way to defend herself, even if it was just a stick. No help was coming. She realized that now, and it left a bitter taste in her mouth. In fact, windows had shut; shades had been drawn as she ran by. No help was coming. The small demon in her arms stirred for the first time since she'd rescued him.

"Kitsunebi!" His voice was feeble, but stubborn. Bluish-green light flared and the men stumbled back. Kagome herself nearly dropped him. The fire flickered down and the demon looked up at her. "Run!" he urged her.

She rushed to the side, her hair swinging into her face, but all the exits were blocked. "Little **swine**," one of them growled furiously, his eyes locked with the little demon's. "How dare you try and escape! This is why you need to **die**!" He raised a lacrosse stick high above his head and Kagome scrambled back just in time.

"Pipe!" The demon told her, pointing to the ground. Kagome bend over and stood up, holding the pipe with one hand and the demon in the other. She backed against the wall again, fear coursing through her veins as the fire of determination took hold. The dark played with her mind, distorting her attackers from mere human beings into monsters from a dark nightmare.

"Stay back!" her voice rose above their laughter and sneers. "I'm not afraid!" She told them, the tremor in her voice giving her away. It was so horrible that she felt nearly surreal, as if she'd suddenly sit up in bed, her clothes soaked in sweat and the vague feeling of a bad dream lurking in the back of her mind.

Their laughter mocked her as the shadowy figures stepped forward, the dingy orange light behind them distorting their faces. "Oh, you're not?" they laughed. "Not only a demon-lover, but a liar! Of course you're afraid! You're about to die!"

The first one surged forward and Kagome moved back, slamming into the brick wall behind her. To her surprise, the old thing crumbled, fissures spreading across the ancient mortar as the bricks collapsed. "Wha-" Kagome fell back with the bricks, down into the darkness. Her scream reached the mob's ears as they stared down after her, down into the dark abyss of the forest called the Barrier.

One of them chuckled. "She didn't survive **that** fall," he muttered with sickening humor. The others laughed and turned, bantering and talking as if they'd accomplished a great deed. They'd just rid the world of another demon, and a Sympathizer.

"And even if she did," the leader chortled, his baseball bat swung causally over one shoulder, "the demons that she **loves** so much'll kill 'er." His laughter mingled nastily with the others', a discordant chord that filled the dingy alleyway with menace.

(\ /)

(•. •)

( )

The middle-aged woman paced across the carpet quickly, agitation clearly written across her face. She bit her lip and glanced at the clock as it ticked quietly above the mantelpiece. It was the fourth time that she had done so in the last five minutes. "Oh, Kagome!" she burst out at last.

"Where are you?" she murmured softly, and took a deep shuddering breath. Mrs. Higurashi paused in her pacing with a decisive snap of her fingers. She stopped at the bottom of the stairs and looked up. "Souta?" she called. "I'm going out to look for her."

"What?" A light flicked on and an old man, Mrs. Higurashi's father, stumbled out of his bedroom in his pajamas and down the stairs. "You can't be serious, Umeko!" He shook his head. "You know what the mobs are like after sunset…" he trailed off, a pained look in his old eyes. "I'm sure that Kagome's fine."

"Don't go, Mom!" Souta's panicked face appeared at the top of the stairwell. "It's too dangerous!" He dashed down the stairs and slammed into his mother in a bone-crushing hug. "Don't disappear like Dad," he whispered hoarsely. Mr. Higurashi had gone out one night and had never returned. Perhaps he was alive; his body was never found.

Mrs. Higurashi's smile was bittersweet with worry and anxiety, but a smile nonetheless. She sighed, "You're right, Dad." She laughed and wiped her eyes. "I'm going to give that girl a talking to when she gets back!" If she got back… The unspoken sentence hung heavily in the air.

"She'll be fine," Mr. Higurashi assured his daughter. "She **is** fine. She's probably at Yuka's house because she was running late and didn't want to get caught out after dark. She's forgotten to call."

The middle-aged woman nodded. "Of course." She patted her son on the head and sighed heavily. "Children are always making their parents worry, aren't they?" She smiled gently and looked down at Souta.

"You make me worry too, Mom," Souta accused. "You're the one always saying not to go out after dark!" He moved away from his mother and sat down on the steps with a yawn.

"Go back to bed, Souta," Mrs. Higurashi said kindly to her son. He nodded and wandered up the stairs. The middle-aged woman turned to her father anxiously as soon as he was out of listening range. "The mobs…" she trailed off, a pained expression in her eyes. "They've been killing more and more people! They don't care who it is!"

Mr., Higurashi pulled his daughter in for a hug. "It'll be okay, Umeko." He patted her on the back comfortingly, though he himself was more than a little worried. "Now go back to sleep."

Mrs. Higurashi nodded tiredly and glanced at the clock once more, her throat tight with anxiety and tension. "Come home safe, Kagome," she whispered as the little mechanism ticked inexorably onwards.

(•.•)

( • )--

Kagome didn't mean to stay after school so late. She really hadn't meant to stay out after the sun set. She honestly wasn't thinking about rescuing a demon from a mob, and certainly hadn't meant to nearly get herself murdered by a group of bloodthirsty Separatists.

If things had gone her way, she would've walked home straight after school and been home at five. She would've done her homework and eaten dinner. She would've watched the News for a few agonized minutes, then turned it off when all it did was spew Separatist, anti-Demon propaganda. Then she would've stayed in her room and read.

She'd only met a demon once; he was tall and friendly, and he said that he was an activist from across the Border who was trying to bring the human world and demon one together in peace. He'd shaken her hand and smiled, and then he was gone. If anyone had bothered to ask Kagome, she would've said that humans were often worse than the demons that they were constantly calling monsters and beasts on the news.

And after the last incident, she was certainly inclined to agree with anyone who said that Separatists were all bloody, rampaging, warmongers who reveled in indiscriminate murder.

She'd been lucky. When the wall crumbled behind her and she fell back into empty black space, she'd only fallen a short distance when she hit the first tree branch, growing out of the side of the cliff. She gripped at the twigs and leaves for a moment, then plunged onward, screaming on the top of her lungs as they tore off.

The demon she was with snatched the leaves from her hand and placed one on his head. Suddenly, she was sitting on a large pink bubble. But this sudden turn of events coupled with the last half-hour's intense trauma just had her screaming louder.

"Sh!" The pink bubble warned. "You'll have demons all over us!" Naturally, the knowledge that she was sitting on not only a large pink bubble, but that she was sitting on a large, **talking** pink bubble didn't help matters in the slightest. "Shh!" The bubble repeated. "Do you want me to drop you?"

**That** got her quiet. "Sorry," she whispered. She gulped. She was sitting on a demon. All the propaganda and PR that had been pounded into her head since she was a small child blossomed in her head. Demons were bloodthirsty, murdering beasts that would kill a human on sight. And only moments ago, he'd been so **small**!

"Thanks for saving me," the demon said after a moment, his breaths coming in gasps as he neared the forest floor. They drifted through the thick growth of forest and onto the floor, twigs snapping and leaves dropping down all around them.

"No problem," Kagome smiled shakily and scrambled off the pink bubble-thing. From this new angle, the bubble looked more ridiculous than menacing. She giggled in spite of herself.

"What?" The demon demanded. Kagome shook her head and cleared her throat. The pink bubble disappeared in a flash of that bluish fire, and there was the kid again. The ginger-haired kid offered a hand. "I'm Shippo, by the way." As she watched, a long gash on his forehead healed itself and a bruise on his cheek faded.

"And I'm Kagome," the black-haired girl replied with a smile. It was hard to be afraid of someone so small. "And thank **you**, for becoming that… bubble thing." She crouched and shook his hand.

With a business-like air, Shippo looked about the forest with bright green eyes. "Well, we should find some shelter until morning. It's safer in the morning, but not much," he said matter-of-factly.

A twig snapped somewhere in the foliage and Kagome jumped, fervently wishing that she still hand that long pipe with her. She cleared her throat nervously. "Lead on," she told the small demon.

"Okay, but be quiet. And don't attract any attention, I have the perfect hiding place," the small demon told her officiously. He glanced back and signaled for her to follow him.

Kagome followed him cautiously as he led her deeper into the woods, eyes darting nervously in every direction at the slightest sound. Her nerves were strained to the limit as he led her through the thick underbrush. There was no moon to light the way and everything was dark.

"Here we are," her guide broke the silence at long last and pushed aside some bushes, revealing a cave entrance. He trotted in with a sigh of relief, Kagome following closely behind him and pausing to arrange the bushes as they were.

Suddenly, rough hands grabbed her from behind and her head hit the hard earth of the cave floor. Something sharp pricked her neck and she gasped, struggling. A rough voice came from above her. "Don't move."

Kagome stopped struggling at once, her breath coming in ragged breaths and useless adrenaline coursing through her system. Whoever –or whatever- it was that was above her shifted slightly and cloth rustled. Shippo gave a muffled yelp a large callused hand placed over his mouth.

"Shut up," the voice told the struggling child. Something in Kagome snapped. She'd used up her supply of fear today while running for her life and wandering through a dark and demon-infested forest. She was fed up with being attacked and abused by complete strangers. She was going to stop giving in, and fight back.

With a grunt of exertion, she pushed the arm away from her neck and grabbed a stone from the ground. She stood up and threw the rock at the shadowy form of the stranger on the ground. "Take that!" The rock –it was really a pebble, she noticed with dismay- hit the guy in the head. He didn't seem to take too kindly to that, and grabbed for her.

They struggled for a few moments, but exhaustion had taken its toll on Kagome. He pushed her to the ground, his weight on her so that she couldn't move. Her hand shot out desperately and he slammed it into the dirt above her head, knocking the bushes aside and letting in some light from the starlit sky. Kagome gasped in surprise. Her assailant wasn't a demon at all; he was human.

The man- teenager, really, about her age, she noticed- reacted similarly and scrambled away, his face pale and brown eyes wide with shock. "Kikyo," he growled harshly.

(\ /)

(•. •)

( )

"No, she's not here," Eri bit her lip with worry. "She never stopped by." Suddenly, she clapped her hands over her mouth in horror. "She had to stay late after school, for cleanup! It would've been dark…!"

Mrs. Higurashi nodded and swallowed painfully. She tried to smile at her daughter's friend. "Well, thank you Eri." She turned and walked heavily down the steps. She turned at the bottom. "If you… hear anything, please tell me?" There was a note of pleading in her voice that she couldn't erase.

Eri nodded slowly and shut the door, her stomach churning with dread. No one who ever stayed out after sunset ever came back if it wasn't later that night. No one ever had.

"Eri?" Her mother's voice echoed from the depths of the house. "You have school in ten minutes! You'd better get going!" Something hissed. "Oh, dear." Numbly, Eri listened as her mother rushed about in the kitchen, turning taps on and pulling things out of the sink. "And who was that, dear?"

"No one," the schoolgirl replied, her voice falsely bright. "Okay, Mom! I'll see you tonight!" She rushed out of the door and grabbed her bag, a few loose papers spilling onto the floor. She didn't bother to pick them up as she closed the door gently behind her and ran down the steps, her footsteps muffled against the dirty green carpeting.

One of the neighbors poked their head out of their apartment. "Can't you be a bit quieter?" the old woman demanded sourly, her limp grey held up tightly in curlers. "Some of us are trying to sleep." She shook her head. "Teenagers."

Without replying, Eri rushed by and hurried down the next flight of steps, distractedly trying to occupy her mind with trivial matters that she was normally absorbed in. Somehow, math homework just wasn't as important this morning. At the bottom of the complex, she pulled her shoes out of their cubby and pulled them on.

She rushed out of the apartment building, her mind racing, yet simultaneously feeling blank and empty. These murders happened all the time, and as sad as it was to admit, the general public had grown **used** to them. At night, the streets were dead, the houses silent. They lived in unspoken fear of the dark and what it hid. The police did nothing to stop it; they were killed just as indiscriminately as anyone else. No one could blame them. And as far as the crumbling government was concerned, the mobs didn't exist.

Faces blurred as she rushed by, dodging pedestrians, her ears deaf to the outraged exclamations she provoked as she crashed blindly into people. This was the first time one of the victims was someone that she knew.

The schoolgirl swallowed hard, gasping for breath as she ran up the hill, her book bag swinging back and forth and shedding paper. Did Kagome run up this hill last night as the tried to escape her pursuers? Did she stumble around this bench and cross this street?

Soon someone would find her body in some alleyway. The incident would be mentioned briefly on the news as yet another "mysterious murder"; the mobs would never be mentioned, and everyone would forget in a few days after seeing it. Well, there it was. Kagome was dead, and no one cared.

She dashed onto the school campus and screeched to a halt, her breaths coming in ragged gasps as other students looked at her curiously. Their chatter and laughter soothed her shattered nerves as she entered the school building surrounded by her peers.

"…so confusing! I didn't get half of the problems! I really hope we go over it in class today, I don't get it at **all**…"

"…told me that there were seven of 'em there, but no one remembered. I think they're lying, though. I mean, they were all there, so one of them has to remember! They just don't wanna back me up…"

"…told me that we didn't have any homework, and I didn't do any. And guess what- the essay's due this afternoon! I dunno what I'm gonna do… I'm gonna have a heart attack, I swear…"

"…really, really tired. I stayed up all last night studying and finishing the essay. But I got it done, so I guess it was worth it. I just hope I don't fail that English test. The past tense is so confusing sometimes! And the vocabulary was hard, too..."

Eri sighed and drowned her tortured thoughts in the bits of conversation surrounding it as she stepped out of her shoes and stored them in her cubby. At least she wasn't late to school. A small giggle at the triviality of her worry escaped her lips.

(\ /)

(•. •)

( )

The black-haired boy backed away as if she had a disease, his brown eyes wary and angry of her as he scrambled to his feet. "I thought you were dead," he murmured, his face white and painted.

"Huh?" Kagome rolled to her side painfully and sat up, clutching the wrist that he'd slammed into the ground. "What are you talking about?" she asked wearily. It occurred to her that perhaps her assailant was a lunatic. Who else would live in the Border?

Shippo struggled to his feet and leaped in front of the human girl. "Stay back!" His chin stuck out mulishly, trembling slightly with nerves. He owed this girl, who'd saved his life nearly at the cost of her own. It was only right that he repay her the favor. "If you want to hurt Kagome, you'll have to get through me!"

Kagome was genuinely touched. Who said that demons were all so terrible? Shippo certainly wasn't, she thought dazedly. And he remembered her name! She'd used up all her fear, excitement, anxiety and stress for one day, which left her muddled and exhausted as the adrenaline drained from her system. She yawned widely. "Who's Kikyo? Never heard of her, myself."

"What do you mean, of course you're Kikyo! Don't play games with me!" the black-haired teen said suspiciously, "Unless you got amnesia or something. That would happen after being hit in the head with a golf club."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Kagome mumbled. She was truly exhausted her head bobbing and eyelids flickering shut. "I just wanna get out of this hell and go home." Her bottom lip trembled. "If I can get there. The mobs'll just come after me again. No one gets lucky twice…" She didn't even realize that she was telling a complete stranger –and a hostile one, at that- about what befell her a few hours before as she dropped off, a sleep born of exhaustion wrapping itself around her like a blanket.

Shippo didn't move from where he stood in front of the exhausted girl, bottom fangs jutting out almost comically as he put his arms out. The two of them glared at each other silently for a few moments. Neither of them wanted to make any more noise and attract the attention of other demons in the woods.

But the day's traumas had taken effect on the young demon as well, and soon he was blinking and yawning, despite his good intentions. He sat down, eyes fluttered as he fought a hopeless battle against the inexorable effects of total exhaustion. He fell back against Kagome's stomach with small snores.

The black-haired youth looked at the two of them, the expression in his brown eyes unreadable. He knew that he should probably kill them; when morning came, they'd know his secret. They were dangerous to keep alive. But at the same time, he couldn't bring himself to strangle a sleeping child and a traumatized girl with his bare hands; upon looking closer, he realized that she wasn't-couldn't- be Kikyo. She was too young, her eyes lacking the deep soulful sorrow that he saw in Kikyo's, and her nature was far too trusting; she fell asleep in the presence of someone who'd tried just moments ago to kill her. And besides, Kikyo was dead, killed by the mobs on her way home from the Embassy. The mere idea of squeezing the life out of them with his hands made his stomach roll.

He sighed. "Damn human conscience," he muttered, and settled down, brown eyes as watchful. He could escape in the morning, before the sun rose and hide until it did. No one would know the difference, and he wouldn't have to soil his hands with a messy murder.

(•.•)

( • )--

The first conscious thought that cleared the muddle haze of sleep was that her back was killing her. The second was that her wrist was throbbing as terribly as her back. Kagome vaguely wondered why her bed felt so hard and lumpy. She also seemed to be lacking blankets. Her arms were bitterly cold and her legs were bare and frozen. The only place she was warm was her stomach, where what seemed to be an oddly-shaped Buyo was snoozing. Eyes still tightly closed, the black-haired girl realized that she must be wearing her school uniform, as odd as it was. And her shoes were still on! She sat up with surprise and confusion, blinking in the predawn light.

A light snore brought her attention down to her stomach, where a strange ginger-haired boy was sleeping. The events of the night before rushed into her head; the demon boy, the mob, the mad dash down and up the dark streets, the brick wall and the fall. And the strange boy who'd tried to kill her. She glanced around the cave with alarm. He didn't seem to be around any more. "Good riddance," she muttered and clutched her head with one hand.

She had a splitting headache, the source of which was a large tender lump from when the guy had slammed her into the dirt. She realized that her wrist was his fault, too. The splinters in her fingers could be accounted to the door that she'd torn at, and the large bruise on her stomach to the tree branch that possibly saved her life.

Shippo stirred on her lap and sat up, blinking. Suddenly, he gasped. "Mom! Dad!" he said frantically. "Where are they? Did the make it out in-" He cut himself off abruptly, sorrow evident in his green eyes. He sighed heavily and looked up at Kagome with a pained smile. "I never did thank you properly for saving me, did I?"

Kagome shrugged. "You don't need to. You saved me when we fell. If it wasn't for you, I'd probably be a small crater in the ground right now," she stated matter-of-factly. In fact, she was feeling decidedly reckless as she stood up, wincing, Shippo sitting on her shoulder. How much worse could it get, after all?

In the last 12 hours, she'd nearly been murdered or killed three times. She was in the Barrier, her family probably thought she was dead, and she was in pain. There wasn't something bad that could happen to her that hadn't already.

All she wanted to do was get home, sleep in her warm comfy bed and drink some hot tea. She glanced down at Shippo. "I want to go home. Where will you go?" she asked as she stumbled out of the cave in the predawn light.

The little demon shrugged. "Could I come with you?" Kagome stopped abruptly and stared. "Don't get the wrong idea," Shippo assured her hastily. "I'm a kitsune." The black-haired girl looked at him blankly. "That means I can shape shift, cast illusions, you know?"

"Oh," Kagome said as it dawned on her and she continued to tromp through the forest. "So you'll put a spell on yourself, and you'll look like a regular kid?"

Shippo nodded in the positive. "That is," he added uncertainly, "if you let me." Green eyes pleaded. "I don't have anywhere else to go." He shrugged matter-of-factly. "The mobs killed my parents," he said savagely. "They were part of the Embassy."

Kagome nodded sympathetically and squeezed the kitsune. "My Dad was killed by the mobs," she told him. "My Mom's a Sympathizer, and so's my Grandpa." She tried to shake the disturbing mental image that resurfaced in her memory; two bodies, beaten and bloody. They must've been Shippo's parents, she realized with a sickening feeling.

"Thanks," Shippo told her gratefully. Relief was evident in his voice. The two of them wandered in silence for a while, Kagome too exhausted to talk any more and Shippo quietly trying to come to terms with his parents' deaths. "Hey," he said after a moment. "Is this the right way?"

Kagome stopped and looked up through the thick foliage for some sign of the cliffs that they'd fallen over. She grinned nervously. "Actually, I have no idea," she told the kitsune. He stared at her in consternation. "Hey, I've never been here before, okay?" she said defensively. "Why don't you lead?"

"I've only been here a few times," Shippo replied. "I have no idea where we are," he told her flatly. He peered up through the dense foliage and got a small glimpse of the grey predawn sky above.

Kagome leaned against a tree despairingly. "Great," she muttered, misery thick in her throat. "Just great." She wiped her eyes- crying would do her no good- and wandered further in the direction that she'd been heading in.

There was a flutter of movement, a flicker of red, from behind some trees. Kagome frowned uneasily and kept walking. A twig snapped and Kagome twitched. There it was again! Kagome pretended to adjust her shoe and picked up a conveniently located rock. She kept walking, her eyes straight ahead. She glanced through the trees. And there! She threw the rock with deadly accuracy. "Hah!" she cheered. Shippo –who hadn't noticed a thing, he was brooding- looked at her oddly. "I got 'im!" She told the small demon cheerfully, a feeling of accomplishment warming her slightly. She could defend herself!

There was a groan from the mass of red, and Kagome realized with dread that she'd hit a person. "Oh, drat!" she exclaimed and rushed over to the person. She peered anxiously at his face, the dingy light making her squint. She reeled back in surprise. "It's him!" She pointed in horror at the same guy who she'd fought with the night before.

"Whoops," Shippo commented. He glanced at Kagome. "What are we gonna do? If we leave him here, he'll get eaten, but if we stay, he'll probably kill us…" A bright light suddenly spread across the forest floor, creeping across bushes and tree trunks as the sun rose.

Kagome shrieked and backed away from the unconscious guy. His hair was turning white. She and Shippo scrambled away and dashed behind a tree as he stirred and woke, piercing yellow eyes glaring at the two of them. "Hey, what was that for, you twit?" he grumbled angrily. "What did I do to you?" He rubbed his head irritably and dog ears flicked.

Kagome gaped like a fish for a moment, her mind a roaring blank. Finally, she pointed at his head asked, "What happened, and why do you have kitty ears?" Shippo snorted and suppressed his laughter.

The white-haired boy looked at her indignantly. "Do I look like a **cat** to you?" he snarled. "I'm a **dog** demon, idiot!" Kagome shut her mouth and flushed with anger. "And the hell's your problem?" he grumbled and rubbed his head again. "Do you throw rocks at everything that moves?" he demanded.

Kagome bristled. "You were **following** us!" she retorted vehemently.

"I was not!" The dog demon shot back. "I didn't even know you were there!" The white-haired boy took a step closer and poked a clawed finger in Kagome's face.

Shippo stared at him carefully, a frown of concentration on his face as the two of them argued back and forth. "Inuyasha?" he asked finally. The dog demon stopped arguing abruptly and turned to stare at the kitsune. "You **are** the hanyou Inuyasha, right?"

"And you're Shippo, an ambassador's brat. Who gives a damn?" He turned back to Kagome. "Where was I? Oh yeah. And it was **you**, not me who went barging into my cave!" He paused. "Are you even listening to me, you witch?"

Kagome wasn't listening. She was looking at Shippo with interest. "You two know each other?" She glanced at Inuyasha with surprise, who snorted in response.

"He was at the Embassy, but he left shortly after I got there," Shippo told her. "He got into a fight with one of the human ambassadors, or something. I dunno." He frowned. "No one ever told me anything."

Kagome looked at the dog demon with bewilderment and incredulity. "**You** worked at the Embassy?"

"I **did**," Inuyasha replied shortly, golden eyes flickering slightly. "And now I don't." He turned and walked away in the opposite direction. "Bye."

After a few moments of shocked silence, Kagome and Shippo scrambled after him. "Wait!" Kagome called. "Then you know how to get out of here!" She caught up with him, her head pounding and her wrist throbbing painfully.

"Yeah, I do." He glared at her testily. "So what?" He folded his arms across his chest stubbornly and tapped his bare foot impatiently on the forest floor.

"Well," Kagome explained patiently. She was starting to wonder if Inuyasha was a simpleton. "can you lead us back?" She couldn't keep the note of hope out of her voice, and it made it all the more depressing when he sneered at her.

"And why would I want to do that?" He chuckled darkly and shook his head, long white hair swinging back and forth. "I'm not going anywhere **near** that Cesspit." His outburst surprised Kagome with its violence.

"Well, could you at least tell me what direction to go in?" Kagome asked angrily, her hands on her hips as she shivered slightly in early morning chill.

The hanyou sighed and pointed in the opposite direction to which they'd been walking. "There. Happy?" he demanded. "Now get lost!"

"I already am, stupid!" Kagome retorted and headed off in the direction that he'd pointed. "Geeze. What's **his** problem?" she grumbled, twigs crackling underfoot and bushes shedding dew upon her as she picked her way through the forest.

"**You** are!" Kagome winced slightly. She should've realized that having dog ears –she still thought that they looked like a cat's- his hearing would be far better than her own. She smiled grimly.

"Let's go home!" she told Shippo, her voice filled with a confidence that she didn't feel at all. Her wrist throbbed painfully and she pulled the red kerchief from her uniform, tying it awkwardly around her wrist in hopes that it would help steady the throbbing joint.

They walked in silence born of exhaustion for some time. They stopped only for a few short breaks, once for water –Kagome was dubious of drinking water from a stream, but there was no other choice- and twice for a blister on Kagome's heel.

Finally, Kagome just stopped, her throat tight with despair. "Look, Shippo," she began with a weary sigh. "We really should find something to eat. Do you know any edible plants, or acorns or something?" She would welcome anything at this point. The black-haired girl looked up at the sky. Through the small patches of blue that shone through the thick foliage, she thought that it was about ten or so. And that would mean that she'd been walking for roughly… she didn't want to do the math.

"Um…" Shippo paused for thought. "Yeah, I can go look," he offered dubiously. "No guarantees, of course." He glanced back at Kagome. She yawned and waved him away. "I'll be back," he told her.

Kagome positioned herself comfortably in a niche in the old tree's roots, her back supported by the wide trunk. She sat there drowsily for some time; she wasn't sure how long, only that it took a lot of effort not to fall asleep. Although the forest seemed relatively tame so far, she'd heard far too many stories about the Barrier to truly feel safe sleeping in it.

A long shadow feel over her, and Kagome looked up slowly, fearing what she might see. Slowly, she got to her feet and stood, staring with horror at the monstrous thing before her. **This** was the kind of demon that they showed in Separatist propaganda. It didn't seem to have eyes, and was nosing blindly about for her with a large snout that twitched like a pigs. Large ears like a rabbits turned to catch her rapid breathing, and it took another step closer, nose eagerly questing.

She took a deep breath and dashed off, panic flooding her system with adrenaline for the umpteenth time in the last twenty-four hours. Behind her, the thing squealed and took off after her. She could hear it crashing through the underbrush and the ground shook slightly as the elephantine monster pursued her.

She dashed pell-mell around trees and leaped over bushes, her weariness banished into the far corners of her mind. With brown eyes sharpened by panic, she noticed a tree with a low overhanging limb. It probably couldn't climb trees; it was large and awkward, even on the ground. She ran towards the tree, the demon close on her trail, and leaped. She landed awkwardly on the branch and clambered onto it. She reached for the next branch, and the next, and then the next. She was blind to how far she was off the ground; she just wanted to get away from the **thing**.

She could hear it's outraged squeals from below, and she shuddered. Slowly, her heart stopped pounding and her breathing slowed. Tremulously, she leaned over in the tree to see what the demon was trying to do now. It backed away, muttering animal noises under its breath, and charged at her tree. "EE!" The branches shuddered and nearly knocked her loose, She hugged the trunk tightly and squeezed her eyes shut. "HEEEEEEEEELP!"

(•.•)

( • )--

Inuyasha came to her aid simply by accident. The screams and the shaking tree piqued his curiosity, and once he realized what was going on, he rolled his eyes. He landed on a branch next to the black-haired girl and looked at her irritably. "You again? Don't you know how to stay out of trouble?"

Kagome gritted her teeth as another shudder ran through the tree. This was accompanied by the cracking of splintered wood. "Look," she ground out, her voice high and tense. "Could you do me a favor and get that, that **thing** away from me?" She nodded at the demon below.

"Why would I want to help **you**?" Inuyasha sneered. "If I recall correctly, the only kindness you've done me so far is throw rocks at me." He counted off on his fingers, his incredible sense of balance keeping him steady even as the tree was shaken by another series of violent attacks from down below. "Once last night, and then this morning."

"Look, I'm sorry!" Kagome apologized sincerely. "But this morning I thought you were some evil demon come to eat me! And last night **you're** the one who attacked me! I was just defending myself!"

The shaking stopped for a moment while the demon down below backed away to charge again. Kagome looked at him curiously. "By the way, how did you turn into a demon this morning? You were human last night."

"Nosy, aren't we?" Inuyasha asked. "And it's none of your business." If she didn't know about hanyou then he wasn't going to enlighten her. A white ear twitched as the demon roared down below.

The thing crashed into the tree once again and the trunk splintered with a groan of protest. Kagome clutched the branch tightly as the large tree fell to the side, the air rushing by and making her dizzy. This was it. She was going to splat onto the forest floor, and if she survived that the demon would just eat her anyway-

Kagome opened her eyes in surprise. She was no longer falling. She blinked and looked up at Inuyasha with surprise. "Thank you!" she told him, sincerely grateful. "You're a nice person after all!"

Yellow eye glared at her irritably. "How nice for me," he grumbled and set her down on another tree branch before jumping down to earth. He turned to face the demon. "An ugly one, aren't you?" he asked idly.

If the demon understood him, it gave no signs of having done so. It flicked an ear in his direction and turned its snout blindly in his direction, nose questing for its prey. It squealed and charged, clearly furious at him for having taken its prey.

Kagome covered her eyes with her hands when the large thing came at Inuyasha. He was so much smaller! If he died, it was all her fault, too. There was a squeal and a juicy thud that made Kagome flinch. Slowly, she opened her eyes and looked down. She winced distastefully. There were demon guts all over the ground, and in the midst of it all, calmly cleaning his claws, was Inuyasha. "Whoa," she murmured. A white ear flicked in her direction and the hanyou looked at her smugly.

She gasped suddenly. "Shippo!" She'd forgotten all about him in her attempts to evade the demon. "Hey," she called down to Inuyasha. "Could you help me down?"

"I'd rather leave you there," the white-haired half demon remarked idly and kicked at a chunk of the demon that he'd slaughtered. He frowned and wiped his foot on the forest floor with distaste.

"Look," Kagome tried desperately, "I need to find Shippo! I left him all by himself, looking for food!" She clambered down the tree branch, wincing slightly as she accidentally jogged her wrist. She dropped onto a lower branch and gulped. It was a long way down…

Inuyasha watched with mild amusement as the disheveled girl struggled with the tree, grumbling under her breath as she did so. She dropped the last few feet and fell on her back with a groan.

"Ow…" She sat up and rubbed her back gingerly. The kerchief around her wrist was starting to unravel, too. Kagome suddenly realized that she must look like an absolute mess. Frankly, though, she really didn't care in the slightest. She stood up shakily and pulled some leaves out of her hair. "Thanks again!" she called to Inuyasha and walked off.

"And where are you going?" he asked curiously.

"I'm looking for Shippo," Kagome turned and told him. She continued to walk up the path she'd taken, clearly marked by the trampled bushes and broken-off tree limbs left in the demon's wake.

Inuyasha sighed and shook his head. "You're an idiot," he told her tiredly. "If you keep wandering around like this, you won't last more than a day." He walked up the trail after her, catching up to the exhausted girl with ease.

"Are you volunteering to help me get back?" Kagome asked tiredly. She looked up at him with a wan smile. "Because I think you're right." A guide would be great, even one as rude as Inuyasha.

"I'm not volunteering for anything," Inuyasha told her quickly as they tramped up the slope. "Look, I'll lead you to the nearest outpost and you should get some help there."

Kagome looked at him with confusion. "Outpost?" she echoed dubiously.

"Didn't you know that they have people posted in this nightmare?" he asked sarcastically. "Some people leave your side willingly so that they don't have to deal with the mobs." Anger flared in amber eyes upon recollection. They'd found her body in an alleyway one morning when she didn't return from work; the mobs had killed her. He'd read the reports, and then he left.

"Hm," Kagome replied, a dark gleam in her brown eyes as they walked along. "I can see why. They have no regard for life!"

Inuyasha glanced at her curiously. "Did the mobs go after you?" As far as he knew, no one had ever escaped the mobs. Although they were disorganized, just a mob of bloodthirsty and angry people, they somehow always managed to corner their victim and kill them.

"Yeah," Kagome sighed. Noticing Inuyasha's incredulous stare, she explained. "They cornered me and the wall behind me crumbled, and I fell into the Border. I was really lucky, I guess."

"Of course you were lucky!" Inuyasha snarled. "No one escapes the mobs!" He paused. "What did you do?"

Kagome laughed bitterly. "You don't need to **do** anything any more for the mobs to go after you, but I rescued Shippo from them. There was a few people in the back alley, and they'd killed some people from the Embassy," she swallowed, remembering the bruised swollen faces and beaten limp bodies, "and Shippo was there under one of the bodies. So I freed him and tried to hide him under my jacket, but it was dark and I was late. They saw me, and then saw Shippo, so they decided to kill me." She shrugged as if it didn't matter. "But even if I hadn't saved Shippo, they probably would've killed me anyway if the caught me. Then I really would've died because Shippo saved me when I fell." She didn't mention that she would've been home before dark if she hadn't been tending Shippo and making sure she didn't jar him while walking carefully home.

"Those bastards will kill anything that moves," Inuyasha muttered harshly. "They don't care if it's a child, old woman, whatever. They'll kill it." His claws bit into his palms as he clenched his fists tightly.

"What did they do to you?" Kagome looked at him curiously as she made her way around a bush. "I'd think that you're too strong for them to take." She was surprised when he stiffened, his expression unreadable.

"That…" he said, "is none of your concern." He stomped ahead in silence, leaving a very confused and weary schoolgirl behind him.

(\ /)

(•. •)

( )

Shippo came back to the tree laden with a variety of acorns and berries that he hoped were edible. When he noticed that Kagome wasn't there, he initially assumed that he'd gotten the wrong tree. After circling the area a few times, he realized that Kagome wasn't there. Little alarm bells went off in his head when he noticed the large hoof marks in the dirt. They were big and cloven, like that of a large deer.

Then, he noticed the trampled bushes and scraped tree trunks. He dropped his little collection in horror and dashed down the trail of destruction left by the demon. "Kagomeeee!" he wailed forlornly, leaping over a bush and dodging under a fallen branch. "I **knew** I shouldn't have left her alone!" he lamented, rushing down the path and hoping that Kagome was still running from the demon. He took a running leap down an outcropping and collided with something warm and red. "Waah!" He struggled in a strong grip.

"Well, if it isn't the kitsune brat." Shippo ceased his struggling in surprise. "You're a little late if you wanna save Kagome," he told the ginger-haired kit, and dropped him to the ground.

"Shippo!" Kagome exclaimed joyfully. "I was afraid that you'd get lost or something and we wouldn't find you!" She hugged the squirming demon and let him go.

He scrambled up onto her shoulder and looked at her apologetically. "Sorry, but I dropped all the food that I found." He sighed. "It wasn't much, anyway. I wasn't sure what was edible."

Inuyasha snorted at him. "How pathetic." They both bristled at him, brown and green eyes glaring angrily. Inuyasha didn't notice. "You wouldn't last one day in the Border, let alone the week it takes to get through to the human side."

Kagome looked at him in shock. "A week?" her voice came out squeakily. "But it only took us a day to get lost!" She sighed with despair. "Great," she muttered. "And I need a break." She sat down on the ground and Inuyasha sighed impatiently. "Look, I spent all last night running for my life, then I fell down a cliff and walked through demon-infested woods at night for about an hour, and then I woke up at dawn, was chased by a demon, and I haven't eaten. I think that I deserve some rest, don't you?" Inuyasha grumbled and sat down. Kagome sighed. "A week?" she repeated dumbly.

Inuyasha raised a sarcastic eyebrow at her. "Did you honestly think it would be that easy? It takes about a day for humans to get to the next outpost, and then at least four to get to the edge of the Border. Then two at least to get up the cliff."

"What?" Kagome turned and stared at him as she leaned back against a tree trunk. "But how can it take a **week** when it took us only one day? Besides, there're elevators and such on the cliff. Those can't take two days to go up!" she exclaimed with exasperation. On her shoulder, Shippo watched Inuyasha curiously.

"I'm assuming that you don't want to go through the heavily infested parts, right?" he demanded. Kagome nodded. "Well, then you have to skirt around 'em, which takes three days. Then you have to sneak up the cliff; they don't let anyone through from the Border unless they have an official passport. Those are only issued to Ambassadors, and only Ambassadors can use the elevators."

Kagome looked at him in surprise. " You're an Ambassador. So then, you could go through if you wanted to, right? And just… smuggle us in, or something?"

Inuyasha laughed at her and Kagome scowled back as she removed her shoe; there was a raw spot on her ankle, and it was killing her. "First of all, I'm only going to lead you to the outpost. Second, I was never an ambassador. I was just a 'part of the delegation'. In other words, I was a figurehead because I'm hanyou; a joining between a human and a demon." He glanced at her sourly. "You can see how that would be symbolic, right?"

Kagome nodded. "It must be useful for the Embassy." Getting back on the subject, she asked, "But you **do** have a passport, right? You'd need one to cross into the human side."

The hanyou smiled bitterly. "Oh, and I forgot to mention that I'm wanted by your country. And don't ask me about it," he said hastily as Kagome opened her mouth to do just that, "'cause it's none of your business, nosy."

Kagome glared at him ferociously and wished that she had a different guide. Well, at least it was only one more day… She closed her eyes wearily and fell asleep.

(\ /)

(•. •)

( )

Questions? Comments? Complaints? Suggestions? Press the button!


	2. Resolve

AN: I suddenly noticed that I'm missing responses. If I've missed you here or before in the past, I'm really sorry and I didn't mean to! (Well since this is the first chapter of this particular story, I've nothing to worry about so far… but still, if I've missed you **here**, I sincerely apologize!)

By the way, the ages I'm using here are the official ones. See them at (without the spaces, naturally):

h t t p / f u r i n k a n . c o m / i y c o m p a n i o n / m i s c / i n d e x . h t m l

And of course Furinkan itself is a great web page…

NOW to responses:

**Moonlit Showers aka InuKag Fan**: Heh… Kagome's been through quite lot, hasn't she? And that was only the first chapter! Let's see what sorts of terrible things I can do to her this time…. But not really.

**InvictusCanisDeus**: Thanks! I agree; this is the best start off that I've done so far, and I think one of the most original. (Or at least, I'm hoping so…)

**NewSalemWitch**: Thank you! I agree (about the beginning). I'm glad that I compromised Inuyasha's personality with the fact that he decided to lead them well; I wasn't sure if it worked out. Thanks for the spelling tip!

**ME: **I tried in this story to alter my writing style a bit, actually. I'm glad that it worked out! Thank you!

**InuKagluver91**: Why, thank you!

**BaBeeCinaMon**: Thank you, and I'm glad that you enjoy it!

**FFchick**: Thanks! It actually came about when I was thinking about the connection between Kagome's time and Sengoku Jidai: where did all the demons go…? That's always made me wonder… and well, this came out of it!

**Inu Kaiba**: Thank you! I've been trying to keep everyone in character. (Sango can give me problems sometimes, but since she hasn't appeared yet…) I'm glad that you like the plot so far!

**MizSiren**: Thanks!

**rin sama1989**: I was pretty worried about keeping them all in character, I'll admit. I'm glad that I did a good job! I hope that the update wasn't too long of a wait; our internet service actually went down on the day that I finished this thing… I was very upset.

Disclaimer: Not mine! Hers! Rumiko Takahashi's and affiliates'!

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Unattainable

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Chapter Two: Resolve

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"Come on!" Inuyasha nudged the sleeping girl with his toe. "Get a move on!" Yellow eyes gleamed with impatience as Kagome mumbled something incoherent and tried to fall back asleep against the tree.

"I want to be at the camp **today**, not in three years!" he snapped as Kagome stood up and rubbed her eyes. "And at the rate you're going at, it's going to take that long!"

Kagome yawned and looked at him. "How long?" She waved at Shippo, who scrambled out of the tree- he'd decided to play lookout- and landed comfortably on the hanyou's shoulder.

Inuyasha flinched. "What do you think I am?" he asked the kitsune irritably as they started off again. "Just your handy packhorse, huh?"

Shippo nodded solemnly in agreement. "And our guide," he added.

"Not for long," the hanyou grumbled and glanced at Kagome, but didn't make the kitsune get off. "Hurry up! You're lagging behind."

Shippo glanced pityingly at the human girl. She hadn't gotten much rest at all in the past day. Her eyes were half-lidded and her feet dragged on the leaf-scattered dank earth.

A brown shoe caught on a root and Kagome stumbled into a tree. With a groan, she pushed away from the trunk and rubbed her nose, glaring at Inuyasha with fury in her brown eyes. She tried to remind herself that he was doing them a service by leading them through the forest, but it didn't help.

"Can we please take a break?" she asked tersely, her clipped tone barely remaining civil. Shippo winced, knowing that this was going to result in a big argument.

Inuyasha whirled around irritably. "We just rested! We haven't been walking even five minutes and you're already complaining! What a spoiled little-"

"I slept five minutes under a tree!" Kagome snapped back. "That's not a break! Unlike you, I'm **human**. I have to sleep at some point, something which I haven't done in ages!"

Amber eyes were equally belligerent. "You just said yourself that you were sleeping five minutes ago! So what are you complaining about? If we stopped every time you got a little tired, we'd never get anywhere!"

"I said that I only slept five minutes! In the last day, I've slept less than four hours and I've been chased by monsters, then attacked by **you**! I've been walking for hours, and scared out of my wits! I **need** a break! Now!" And with that, the black-haired girl sat down on the ground and leaned up against a tree, her eyes already fluttering shut.

"Oh, give me a break!" Inuyasha retorted. "You attacked **me**! You invaded my cave and you slept there!" He turned and glared at the black-haired girl. "So get up! We're going to keep-" he frowned incredulously and looked at Shippo. "Is she **asleep**?"

The ginger-haired kitsune shrugged carelessly, emerald eyes wide and sincere. "Looks like it." The exhausted schoolgirl remained comatose as she reclined against the tree.

Inuyasha stared at her angrily for a moment, then sighed huffily. "Looks like we'll be here a while," he grumbled to Shippo and sat down, arms folded across his chest.

(\ /)

(•. •)

( )

Blinking sleepy brown eyes, Kagome found herself staring up at the foliage above. With a yawn, she sat up and stretched sore muscles.

"Well, look who finally decided to get up," Inuyasha commented sourly, amber eyes glinting in the orange light of the fire he was tending. He prodded at it with a stick. "You slept for most of the day," he informed her pointedly and glanced up at a small patch of dark sky above that shone through the trees.

"Good," Kagome replied contentedly. "I feel much better." But she really needed a shower now… and a change of clothes, and a hairbrush. She glanced at Inuyasha. There was no point in telling him that. He wouldn't care in the slightest.

"What are **you** staring at?" The white-haired boy interrupted her train of thought, his golden eyes staring challengingly at her. Kagome looked away, unnerved.

"You know, Inuyasha," Shippo commented from his perch in a tree, "you could try to be a bit more **friendly**. You're gonna be stuck with us for another few days." The kitsune scrambled down the tree's trunk and fell to the forest floor with a thump.

"Unfortunately," Inuyasha grumbled and poked at the fire again. The flames flickered and leaped as he rearranged the branches. None of them spoke for a while, and the soft murmuring of the fire filled the awkward silence.

"Um…" Kagome broke the silence and cleared her throat nervously. "Won't the fire attract demons, or something?" She flinched as a twig snapped somewhere in the forest beyond the range of the dancing orange flames.

Inuyasha paused mockingly to consider. "Let me think…" he said sarcastically. "Yes." He shifted in his seat and added some more wood to the fire.

"What?" Kagome demanded incredulously. "Are you trying to get us **killed**?" Her voice rose steadily louder until she was yelling at him. "We're all gonna get **eaten**! How stupid can you be?"

Amber eyes glared belligerently into brown as he growled a reply. "You're the stupid one if you think that I'd be weak enough to get killed by one of **them**," he spat. "They know well enough to stay away from me." The two of them glared daggers.

Shippo looked between the two of them nervously, then piped up. "What about food?" The kitsune looked plaintively at Inuyasha.

The hanyou looked away from Kagome and fixed his angry gaze on the ginger-haired kitsune. "What do you expect **me** to do?" he demanded. "I never said that I'd **feed** you."

"How mean!" Kagome exclaimed in Shippo's defense. "He's just a kid, and neither of us have been in a situation like this! You could try to be a bit more friendly, you know!"

"I'm doing you a favor already!" Inuyasha bellowed back. "I'm saving your sorry asses and getting you back home! I'm using **my time** to help you!" He waved a clawed finger in the black-haired girl's face.

"It won't matter if we die of starvation!" Kagome retorted and shoved his finger away from her face. Both of them glared, furious. The fire popped and cackled in the background.

It was Inuyasha who finally gave in. "Fine," he grumbled and turned away. "But don't expect me to wait on you hand and foot, princess!" Without waiting for a scathing reply from Kagome, he rushed away, a dark red blur in a maze of dark tree trunks and whispering leaves.

White ears twitched as he glared into the darkness. Evening wasn't the best time to hunt. For a moment, he considered going back with nothing. But that wouldn't help his already-injured pride. "Hah." There, in the brush…

A clawed hand shot out and grabbed and handful of indignant squawking feathers. The bird struggled furiously in his grasp for a moment before Inuyasha deftly snapped its neck. That was one. A few minutes later, and he had another handful of bird. With a small smug smile on his face, he stepped around a bush and headed back to camp.

It was the strange sounds coming from Kagome and Shippo's direction that first made him uneasy. Then, white ears twitching, he caught the sound of screams. "Shit." He dashed off through the dark, dodging bushes and tree trunks. As he got closer, he realized that the screams were indeed Kagome's, but they were more angry than frightened.

"… stupid! I don't care if you **are** hungry, I refuse to come down and get eaten. You can howl all you want at me! I don't care, and I'm up to here with all these attacks! Go away!"

The hanyou snorted incredulously. Like that was going to stop a rampaging demon…

"Who says I want to eat you? Do I look like a demon to you? Look, miss, I don't know why you're so upset with me, but I'm just passing through! I just want directions!"

"It's a trick!" Kagome cried shrilly from the clearing. "You're disguised! There's all sorts of demons in these woods!"

Inuyasha slowed to a trot and stepped into the firelight. He stared up into the branches of the tree that Kagome was perched in. "This is worse than looking after a baby," he complained to her. "I leave for just five minutes, and you somehow manage to get yourself in trouble."

"I'm not going to eat her!" The dark-haired man whirled on Inuyasha. "Look, I just want directions to-" he stopped abruptly and stared at Inuyasha's ears. "Demon!" Clumsily, he pulled out a sword and haphazardly waved it about in the air. "Stay away!"

Dropping the two dead birds by the fire, Inuyasha rolled his eyes and folded his arms across his chest. "What are you doing?" He glared pointedly at the young man.

"Stay back, I tell you!" Reflected firelight danced across the polished edge of the blade. "I'll stab you!"

"That's nice." In a flash, the sword fell to the ground with a thump. Inuyasha stepped on the hilt and continued to stare at the young man. "Whaddaya want?"

"Don't worry, he's not gonna kill ya," Shippo chirped from the dark branches of the tree. "He's leading us to an outpost, or something."

The man gulped nervously. "Oh, if that's the case…" he took a deep breath. "Can you tell me where Kotada is?"

"That way a lot." Inuyasha waved a hand vaguely, red sleeve flapping. "But Tomejii's closer, that way." He pointed again. "Now scram."

"Th-thank you, sir!" Inuyasha lifted his foot off of the sword and the young man scrambled to pick it up. Without a backward glance, he disappeared into the darkening night, crashing through bushes and hacking at the vegetation.

Kagome scrambled down from the tree, nursing a scrape on her arm and a bruised knee. "I didn't know that there were cities in the Border," she commented and caught Shippo as the kitsune tumbled out of the tree.

"There's a lot you don't know about the Border," Inuyasha grumbled in return. "For instance, you seem to think that the whole place is infested with demons." He picked up the birds and held them out towards Kagome.

She looked at the two offerings gingerly. "But isn't it? In the time I've been here, I've seen three demons, and it's only been a day. Am I supposed to eat that **raw**?" She held the limp bodies by the tips of her fingers.

"Stupid," Inuyasha snorted. "You pull the feathers off and cook 'em on a stick. Or you could put 'em in clay and bake 'em. You don't lose the juices that way." With a defeated sigh, he took the birds from Kagome and started pulling out feathers; it was too dry for mud. "And there aren't as many demons as you seem to think," he informed her. "Sure, there's a **lot**, but not as many as humans."

Kagome looked across the dancing fire towards the dog-demon in surprise. "I didn't know that anyone lived here at all," she admitted. "Of course," she added, "all I've heard are rumors and little things on TV."

"No wonder." With a frustrated growl, he wrestled a few more feathers off of one of the birds. "There's way more demons on the other side of the Border." He pulled out another handful of feathers.

"Here." Kagome grabbed the other bird with a dubious expression on her face. With a grimace, she started to pull feathers out. "What do you mean, the other side of the Border? I thought that the only demons there where the ones from the Embassy."

"It's called the 'Border', remember?" Inuyasha watched with mild amusement as Kagome pulled out a handful of feathers and made a face. "There's two sides of it; the human, and the demon."

"I was born on the demon side," Shippo added. "But I don't remember much about it. I lived in the Embassy most of the time." He picked up a feather and twirled it through his fingers.

"How old are you, Shippo?" Kagome inquired as she continued to pull feathers. It wasn't so bad, once you got used to it, once she reminded herself that it was what some people must do for a job.

"I'm seven." By this time, the ginger-haired kitsune hand a large pile of feathers to play with. He threw them up in the air and the downy mass drifted slowly back down, some of them onto the fire.

"Brat! Don't do that!" Inuyasha put one hand over his nose. "Feathers stink when you put them in fire, you idiot!" He wiped watering eyes. "Gods! What a stench!" He

bopped the kitsune over the head, just for good measure.

"Well, **sorry**," Shippo griped and took a seat next to Kagome. As the smell began to disperse, the ginger-haired demon asked the same of Kagome; "How old are you?"

"I just turned fifteen," Kagome replied forlornly. "My birthday was five days ago." It seemed like ages, though, and so distant. Vaguely, she wondered guiltily how her family was. She hoped that they weren't completely messed up, and the mob hadn't targeted them.

"What about you, Inuyasha?" Shippo looked curiously at the hanyou as he pulled the last few feathers from his bird. "How old are you?"

The hanyou's face remained impassive in the flickering orange glow from the fire as it hissed and popped. "Does it matter?" he retorted levelly and tossed another branch onto the fire.

"If it doesn't, then why don't you wanna tell me?" Shippo challenged archly, a small smug smile on his face as he settled himself in Kagome's lap.

Inuyasha sighed. "Fifteen," he grumbled finally, and wrestled the bird onto a stick. He held it over the fire and glared at Shippo. "Happy now?" he snarled.

"You're fifteen?" Kagome squeaked in surprise. "But… you were part of the Embassy! Wouldn't you hafta be older, or something? And you live out here all alone, don't you?" She sat back, clearly impressed as she continued to pull feathers. "Wow!"

Inuyasha shrugged uncomfortably. "It's not a big deal, or anything. All I did at the Embassy was sit around and look pretty. They just needed a poster boy." It came out more as a snarl than anything else.

"…Oh," Kagome stammered. After a few more minutes dedicated to plucking feathers, she held out her bird. "Is this okay?" At this point, she wasn't sure if she really wanted to eat it…

"Looks fine to me," Inuyasha replied as he stared into the fire.

"Do I get one?" Shippo inquired hopefully, watching as Inuyasha's bird started to turn a nice golden brown. Inuyasha waved his bird at Shippo and indicated that it was his.

"Hey," the black-haired girl asked cautiously. "Aren't you supposed to drain the blood first?" She poked at her own bird, which she hadn't yet put on a stick.

"If you know so much about this, then why don't you do it yourself and quit asking me?" He pulled his bird away from the fire and poked at it with one claw, cutting a small neat slice on the side. He held it upside down and let blood drip from the bird.

Kagome winced. "Ew! You're supposed to drain it **before** you put it over the fire, too!" She shook her head. "Haven't you ever done this before?" Shippo scrambled out of her lap and looked at the half-roasted bird disdainfully.

"Well, it's your food, you make it!" Inuyasha tossed the roast to Shippo and stomped away into the dark.

The kitsune held the stick dubiously. With a wary sniff at the partially-roasted bird, he finally put it back over the fire. "Well, it's food," he said with a sigh. This, the kitsune decided, was going to be a very long three days indeed.

(\ /)

(0.0)

( )

Humans, Inuyasha realized grumpily, slept a lot. Amber eyes glanced down at the prone figure of the girl that he was escorting to Matachi, the outpost closest to the human side. Conveniently, it was also one of the few places in which no one tried to chase him away.

But it wasn't just Kagome, it was Shippo, too. Down below, he ginger-haired kitsune mumbled something in his sleep, small fists clenched in the grey predawn light. White ears twitched and caught the softly uttered words; "Mama… Papa…"

The hanyou winced and turned away, feeling almost guilty to be listening. He sighed and stared up at a small patch of sky overhead. Well, they'd slept long enough. Time to get a move on.

Kagome woke to find something poking her shoulder. At first, her mind still clouded in sleep, she mumbled, "Souta, go bother someone else." Vaguely, she rolled to the other side and shivered in the cold.

"Wake up! I'm not 'Souta', you idiot," Inuyasha informed her, his voice laced with exasperation as he poked her again.

Kagome sat up drearily and rubbed her eyes. With a humongous yawn, the black-haired girl stood up and stretched. "Brr, it's cold," she commented and picked Shippo.

"It won't be if you start moving." Without waiting to see if she was following, the white-haired hanyou set off at a brisk pace.

"What a slave driver," Kagome murmured to Shippo. The sleepy kitsune nodded emphatically in agreement.

"I'm doing you a **favor**, you know," Inuyasha called from farther ahead. "You could be a bit more grateful."

"I forgot about his doggie ears." Kagome skirted a tree trunk and hopped over a bush. Already, she was breathing pretty heavily, and she was starting to warm up nicely. If it had just been **walking**, she would've been fine going through the forest for hours. But she had to walk over fallen branches, jump over bushes, climb over rocks.

It only took about twenty minutes before Kagome was exhausted. "Hey!" Inuyasha's voice rang out from behind a large number of tree trunks. "What are you doing? Get a move on!"

"She's tired!" Shippo protested. "She **is** only human, after all." Brown eyes glanced at emerald green gratefully, and Shippo grinned.

Inuyasha grumbled something in reply as he headed back towards them. He stopped in front of Kagome, arms crossed over his chest as he regarded the panting schoolgirl skeptically. After a few moments, he sighed resignedly and, before Kagome knew what was happening, he grabbed her wrist and swung her over onto his back.

"Ow!" Kagome winced and rubbed the injured joint gingerly. "Wh-what are you doing?" she stammered, an embarrassed flush heating her face against the cool mid-morning air.

"I'm hurrying up." Inuyasha leaped a bush with ease and kept running. "You were taking too long," he explained, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Hopefully, their trip would be cut down by half this way, though he did feel rather like a packhorse.

(•.•)

( • )--

The white-haired hanyou skidded to a stop in an empty clearing. "Get off." He leaned over so it would be easier for Kagome to do so. Shippo simply leaped from his shoulder.

Kagome scrambled off eagerly and started around their surroundings with curiosity. "I can't believe you ran like that for so long!" she called from one side of the clearing as she poked at an old fire pit. "Do other people stay here, too?"

Inuyasha shrugged. "Sometimes. It's a sort of campground." He sat down cross-legged on the ground among the leaves and twigs.

"Is it lunch now?" Shippo wandered his way, picking up small sticks and twigs as he went. He hand a small bundle by the time that he'd reached Inuyasha.

Unwilling to admit that he was actually tired from carrying the two of them, Inuyasha nodded. "Yeah." An idea struck him. "But this time, **you're** finding it."

Shippo blanched. "B-but, I've never hunted anything before…!" he stammered, his little bundle of "firewood" forgotten.

"So now's a good time to start, don'cha think?" Inuyasha yawned. He hadn't gotten much sleep himself for quite a while… A nap sounded like a good idea.

Shippo glared at the hanyou for a moment, then marched off, his nose in the air. "Fine! I'll show **you**, dog-boy!" On the other side of the clearing, Kagome snorted and tried not to laugh.

"**Dog**-boy?" Inuyasha echoed incredulously. "Some way to treat someone who's just carried you five miles!" A scowl on his face, Inuyasha hopped into a tree and hoped that Shippo would get trampled by a deer. Dog-boy… now **that** brought back memories… But he still hadn't decided if they were good memories or bad.

Kagome glanced at the white-haired boy in the tree. He really **was** fifteen, wasn't he? No one older would act like that… she hoped. She smiled unhappily and the nagging voice that had been bothering her incessantly rose to the surface of her mind. What was her family doing right now?

"Ha!" Shippo swaggered into the clearing, proudly holding three dead birds in his arms. "I got **three**, Inuyasha!" He placed his trophies next to his bundle of sticks and grinned at the half demon.

Inuyasha opened one lazy amber eye. "That's nice," he remarked with a yawn. "Now all ya hafta do is pluck and roast 'em." The eye shut and, to all appearances, he fell asleep.

With a small bit of grumbling, Shippo sat down on the ground with a crunch of leaves, bushy tail twitching in agitation. "Fine then. You just won't get any!" Up in the tree, a white ear twitched, and a small smug smile curled at the corners of Inuyasha's mouth.

"Here, Shippo, I'll help." Kagome dusted off her skirt- not that it helped; she was just as filthy as before- and plopped herself down next to the kitsune with a small sigh. The black-haired girl picked up a bird and started to pull out feathers. "How'd you catch them so quickly?" She glanced at Shippo, impressed.

Shippo paused for a moment. He stood up and leaned in towards Kagome's ear. "They're transformed acorns," he whispered softly so that Inuyasha wouldn't hear. "But don't tell dog-boy, okay?"

Kagome nodded, a small grin on her face. "By the way, why do you call him that?" She continued to pluck at the acorn's feathers. "Hm. 'Dog-boy'."

Shippo sat down again and tugged half-heartedly at the feathers, eyes downcast. "I heard someone call him that at the Embassy." Memories filtered through his mind. His parents…

Kagome noticed and patted him comfortingly on the head, a sad look in her eyes. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring it up." That's right, she thought. Shippo's parents are gone… "If I were you," she added, "I'd probably be bawling me eyes out. You're very strong." She smiled encouragingly, hoping that he'd feel a bit better.

"There hasn't been any time to cry," Shippo explained as he stared hard at the acorn in his lap. "And… at least I didn't see it, right?" He tossed a handful of feathers onto the ground. "And I'm still alive."

Kagome had nothing to say to that. The poor kid had just lost both parents and had been hurled into a rough existence. And he was seven years old. "I'm sure that your parents would be proud of you," she hazarded.

Kagome was rewarded with a weak smile from the ginger-haired child. "Thanks." They pulled feathers in silence for a while. "What about you?" Shippo asked after a few minutes of quiet inflection. "You got chased by that mob because of me… won't your family be blacklisted?"

Kagome shook her head. "Nah, if we would be, then we already have been. My dad was killed, too. At least, that what we think. He disappeared three years ago when he went out after dark." She shook her dark head wearily. There was no chance that he was still alive, but that didn't stop her wondering. Even now, three years later. Often, she was kept up late at night, staring up at the dark ceiling, shrouded in the restless silence that came with the dark, wondering. What had happened? Her mind would run through impossible scenarios; had he miraculously escaped, and was in hiding? Maybe they'd thought that he was dead and hit him on the head with a pipe, and now he had amnesia. Maybe he'd fallen over the cliff, just like she had, and was wandering around the Border… In some ways, that painful, fleeting hope was worse than actually knowing that he was gone forever.

(\ /)

(•. •)

( )

After another day, Kagome finally worked up the courage to ask Inuyasha, "Could we stop somewhere so that I could bathe?" By this time, she felt absolutely disgusting; her clothes needed to be changed, her hair needed to be washed and brushed, and she felt like she was had grimy dust for skin.

Inuyasha glanced at her and nodded tactfully. "We'll find a stream; the river's a bit dangerous, and a lot colder."

Kagome grinned with relief. "Thank you," she replied gratefully. She clambered familiarly onto Inuyasha's back, and he took off. It was funny how much a day had changed them both; only yesterday, he probably would've ranted on and on about wasting time and superfluous feminine habits. Inuyasha had finally stopped referring to her only as "you idiot". Now, she was "you idiot", "you", and very rarely, her actual name, "Kagome". Well, it was an improvement, though they still didn't get along all the time.

"There's a stream coming up," the hanyou informed her brusquely. "Um…" How could he phrase this without getting his on the head with a rock? "Are you thinking of washing your clothes, too?"

Kagome nodded. "That would be a good idea," she admitted. The air lifted her hair from the back of her neck as trees blurred by, blending into one brown-green blur as Inuyasha ran.

Well, obviously… "Then whatcha gonna wear?" Shippo piped up from Inuyasha's shoulder, green eyes wide and sincere. "You're clothes'll be all wet and stuff."

"You can have my haori," Inuyasha grumbled gruffly as he leaped over a fallen tree, bare feet pounding the hard packed earth.

"Are you sure that it'll be enough?" Kagome dubiously fingered the strange fabric beneath her grubby fingers.

"I think so." Inuyasha skidded to a halt, a dusty cloud of leaves and dirt billowing out behind him. "The stream's that way."

Kagome slid off of his back eagerly. "Oh, to be **clean**!" she exclaimed exultingly.

"Don't get too excited. It's cold." Inuyasha deftly pulled off his haori and handed it to the eager schoolgirl.

"I don't care! I just can't wait to get all this grime off." She scrambled down the hillside in a shower of dirt, leaves and twigs that didn't improve the condition of her socks and shoes. She stopped abruptly and turned. "And no peeking, Inuyasha!"

"I'm **not** tempted!" the irate hanyou hollered back. He snorted and shook his head, his back obstinately towards her.

"Oh, Shippo, you might wanna come, too." Kagome glanced at the kitsune with a critical eye. "You can't be much cleaner than me."

"Comin'!" The ginger-haired bounced cheerfully after her. "See ya, Dog-boy!"

"Quit calling me that, Brat!" Inuyasha retorted harshly, amber eyes smoldering with anger at the smaller demon.

"'Kay, Dog-boy!" Shippo didn't know what it meant and he didn't particularly care. All he knew was that it annoyed the hanyou, and that in and of itself was reason enough for him.

"Shippo, stop teasing Inuyasha," Kagome told the kitsune condescendingly. The pair disappeared from sight behind a small copse of trees. The stream burbled just below that. Carefully, she hung the half-demon's haori on a tree branch and removed her shoes before plunging recklessly into the stream, fully clothed. They **did** need to be washed, after all. "Wow, this looks pretty deep." But the water was calm; it would be safe to bathe in.

"Ah!" She yelped; the water was **freezing**! "This must be ice melt," she complained to Shippo. "It's so c-cold!" She wrapped her arms around herself in a futile attempt to maintain warmth.

With a great show of caution, Shippo dipped one footpaw the edge of the water. He nodded gravely. "I think you're right. Maybe I'll just sit out," he decided.

Kagome glowered at him. "That's not fair!"

Shippo smiled superiorly at the half-frozen girl. "Well, it's your own fault for jumping in like that. **I'm** not going to freeze in there."

"Oh really?" Before Shippo got the chance to inquire as to what she meant, Kagome shoved cold water in his direction and thoroughly drenched the shocked kitsune.

"H-hey!" The ginger-haired boy spluttered indignantly. That was more of something that he'd expect from Inuyasha, not kind-hearted, sweet Kagome. "That's not fair!"

"Life's not fair," Kagome countered with a friendly grin as she wrung out her sopping green shirt.

"Fine!" With a swirl of leaves and blue foxfire, Shipp the Big Pink Bubble crashed into the stream and sent a giant icy wave at Kagome.

"Eek!" Kagome was swamped and submerged by the wave. Tendrils of black hair swirled into her face and brown eyes blinked in the crystal clear water of the "stream". The bottom fell into shimmering aquamarine depths of at least eight feet in the middle, where she'd been swept out to. It was another world; strangely silent and coldly tinged blue. She grinned delightedly. There were little flashes of silver fish darting back and forth at the bottom.

Shippo's anxious face appeared in her view, and the kitsune tugged her arm towards the surface. Obediently, Kagome rose to the surface with him. They both gasped for air. "Waah! I'm so sorry Kagome!" the kitsune wailed. "I didn't mean to do that! Are you okay?"

Kagome laughed breathlessly. "It's okay, Shippo! I was just looking at the bottom. It's so clear, have you seen? And there's little fish on the bottom!"

Shippo's emerald eyes light with interest. "Really? Where?" He dove back under and Kagome pointed the small crowd out on the bottom. He grinned and bubbled came out from his mouth. They surfaced. "Cool!" Shippo paused, a frown of concentration on his face.

In a puff of foxfire, Shippo was a fish. Kagome giggled. A very odd-looking fish, with long floppy orange fins and a purple spotted body. Big eyes bulged from a goofy face. "Wow, Shippo."

"What's so funny?" Shippo the Fish demanded. "I've never been a fish before," he told her defensively. When Kagome merely giggled, he dove down below, deliberately splashing her in the process.

Kagome submerged herself and watched as the outrageous "fish" approached the tiny flashes of silver. She wasn't surprised when they all darted away. The strange fish rose lazily to the surface and made a face at her.

Kagome giggled and bubbles rose through the clear cold water. She and the fish swam towards the shore where it water was shallower. They stopped where Kagome could stand. Shippo became himself again in a puff of smoke. Kagome grinned and shoved another wave at him.

"What was **that** for?" Shippo hollered unhappily.

"I was just getting you back for hitting me with that giant wave. Truce?" She started to wring out her socks and winced when the water that came out was a dirty brown color.

"Never!" Shippo splashed her back with a mischievous grin. "Ha!"

(\ /)

(0.0)

( )

"How long does it take to take a bath?" Inuyasha questioned the surrounding trees and bushes. "It's probably been an **hour** by now, and I'm not over exaggerating," he grumbled unhappily and traced dusty circles in the dirt with one claw.

A twig cracked down below and a fuzzy white ear twitched in response. Looking slightly embarrassed, Kagome clambered over the ledge, clad only in his haori and carrying her other clothes under one arm. "I heard that," the black-haired girl warned. "And I'll have you know that my hair was a mess."

"Women. Always messing with their hair," Inuyasha commented and stood up. "How long do you think it'll take for those clothes to dry?" he asked hurriedly when Kagome developed a certain frown that he now knew meant trouble.

"Not too long, if Shippo makes a fire and I put them over it." She glanced at the sodden Kitsune. His tail was a straggly sodden mess.

"Just don't burn them," Inuyasha warned. Kagome was the type of person who would do that by accident. "I want my haori back when you're done."

"I was wondering about that." Kagome looked at him curiously as Shippo started to gather twigs enthusiastically. "Why do you wear such old-fashioned clothes?"

Inuyasha shrugged grimly, amber eyes unreadable under a troubled frown. "I didn't have time to pack, and this was what I was wearing when I left."

From the bright light of interest shining in the schoolgirl's brown eyes, Inuyasha realized that she had a number of follow-up questions in mind. "Did you get chased out? What happened? What did you do?"

"You're too nosy for your own good," the hanyou replied cryptically. He turned away. "It's getting dark anyway. We could camp out around here for the night. We should reach Toroshi tomorrow morning," he said heavily, his expression grim.

"It's not that dark at all," Shippo argued. "It must be about four; it won't be dark for another two hours." He glanced at the grim hanyou quizzically.

"It'll take a while for Kagome's clothes to dry, and by that time it won't be worth the trip." And without any explanation, he hopped into a nearby tree where he was hidden from view by the thick foliage beneath.

(•.•)

( • )--

Her short, curly hair swayed gently in the cool breeze. Mrs. Higurashi watched the dark, empty streets below. Dingy orange streetlamps lit small, grubby patches of sidewalk and abandoned asphalt like miniature dying suns. To Mrs. Higurashi, it was one of the most despairing and sorrowful, lonely sights in the world. It stank of fear and darkness, harsh reality and cold uncaring where it was each to his own, every man and woman for him or herself.

Sorrowful brown eyes widened in revelation as the distant echoes of a brief struggle reached her ears across the eerily silent landscape. It hadn't always been like this, she recalled. Just five years ago, the streets at this time were bustling and filled with laughter. Street vendors and restaurants filled the crisp night air with the hiss of hot oil and enticing smells. Bright, neon lights lit up shop windows and happy chatter spilled out into the streets.

How had things gotten so bad? Night used to be a happy, carefree time, a blur of brightly colored lights and happy talk rather than a silent, tense time where everyone stayed inside and didn't talk about the desperate cries for help that rang out through the silence every so often. Guilt made her twinge as she recalled the times that she'd just pretended not to hear anything.

The moon hung high in the velvety midnight blue sky, a great white disk above the crowded city. It shed a mercifully pale white light onto dark rooftops, rather than the harsh orange from the streetlamps. A soft breeze stirred the plain white curtain on the open window as Mrs. Higurashi wiped a watering eye. First, she lost her husband. Now her daughter.

And it wasn't just the mob's fault; if people opened their doors and helped others rather than being ruled by fear and repressed by intimidation, these murders wouldn't happen. It was just as much those that didn't care, that ignored those in need; everyone was a precious family member to someone else, someone who'd be mourned and grieved over. It was time that people started to help eachother. Mrs. Higurashi sighed and closed the window quietly. She paused and glanced out one more time before drawing the curtains.

Ignoring the problem wasn't going to make it go away; so far, it had only gotten worse. Next time someone ran by her house seeking refuge, she'd let them in. Maybe she would talk to some friends, and actually address the issue and violate the unspoken taboo. It was dangerous, but so was anything truly worth fighting for. She would not be ruled by fear any longer.

(\ /)

(•. •)

( )

AN: Well, there ya go. I know; the chapter's a lot shorter than usual, but I realized that if I try to stretch it out and make in a certain number of pages –twenty, actually- it doesn't improve the story at all; in fact, it sometimes makes it worse, and it drags on the plot. So from now on, the chapters will be from fifteen to twenty pages long, going by Microsoft Word, rather than twenty every single time. Sorry if anyone's unhappy with that; I just want to vamp up the quality a bit. Quality over quantity and such.

Questions, comments, complaints, ect, please tell me! Criticism and such is much appreciated, and definitely helpful!

Thanks for reading!


	3. Far From Home

Responses!

**Fireflyskies**: I hope you didn't hafta wait too long, and thank you!

**rin sama1989**: Wow! I'm blown away by your enthusiasm!

**Inukag**: Thank you very much!

**Moonlit Showers aka InuKag Fan**: Oh, I'm sure that I'll manage to find a way to keep Inuyasha and Kagome stuck together… (Mwah ha ha!)

**InuKagluver91**: I'm glad that you like it!

**Dave Man: **Thank you! And yessiree, I did indeed write Haunted. 'Twas my first fic. (Speakin' of which I gotta finish that thing soon…)

**InvictusCanisDeus**: Thanks! I'm glad that the ending worked out, too; I usually end with a cliffhanger, so in some ways it was a bit of an experiment.

THANK YOU ALL FOR RESPONDING!

x

Unattainable

x

Chapter Three: Far From Home

x

"A-and it's not e-even that!" hiccupped the older woman, brown eyes rimmed with red. "I-it's my s-s-son! I know that he's one of them! I'm sure he's p-part of the mob!" The aging woman removed her glasses and wiped her eyes before sobbing noisily into a handkerchief kindly provided by Mrs. Higurashi.

"There, there," the black-haired woman smiled reassuringly and patted her neighbor on the back. "I'm sure it can't be that bad."

"It **is**!" The other woman howled. "I **know**! He's always talking with those shady characters on the street. And when I used to invite him over to dinner- I-I don't anymore, he could be so **violent-** he always a-argued that Sympathizers are just as bad a demons. N-now we all know that demons are evil, b-but I can't believe that my little Ataru grew u-up to b-b-be so violent! He's a **mobster**!" She blew her nose noisily into the kerchief.

Mrs. Higurashi frowned. "I'm sorry to hear that, Wanatabe-san. What about your other children? I remember that your Akina was so sweet and gentle." With a kind smile, she offered her neighbor a steaming mug of tea.

"Sh-she's to terrified to do anything but nod and go along. H-her family is **everything** to her, and wh-when poor Kisho –that's her departed husband- was killed, she just was never the same." Fresh tears started to well up in the older woman's red eyes. "A-after that, she just a-accepts i-it all as a part of l-life."

"I'm sorry to have brought it up," murmured Kagome's mother. She pursed her lips tightly. The clock on the mantelpiece ticked quietly in the background. "It's just… it's been on my mind lately." She glanced out of the window distractedly. How different it was from the night. Cars zoomed by relentlessly, motors humming monotonously as the sidewalks clamored with a multitude of people; exuberant schoolchildren, conversing teens, men in business suits who glanced impatiently at their watches.

"Oh, not at all," Mrs. Wanatabe assured her with a watery smile. "It's been so long since I've talked to anyone about it. Sometimes it's nice to just cry." An embarrassed flush stained her cheeks. "I-I'm sorry to have let it all out in your living room." She glanced around the darkly lit room, the photos cluttering the chest of drawers in the corner and the dusty, unused television squatting on a tea table. "It's a v-very emotional subject for me."

"The same goes for me." Mrs. Higurashi stared down at the carpeted floor. "I-I just lost my daughter." She blinked watery eyes and dabbed her them with her apron. Kagome's framed picture grinned cheerfully down at them from the wall, black hair tied back in a ponytail.

The other woman gasped. "You don't mean Kagome!" She clapped two withered hands over her mouth in horror before breaking out in a fresh bout of sobs. "She was so kind to me! Sh-she knew th-that I was lonely and when…" she took a shuddering breath, "when she h-had time, she'd say hello a-and ask how I w-was. Sh-she always smiled a-and waved…" She crushed the paper kerchief in one fist and tossed it into the wicker wastepaper basket by her feet. It was already half-filled with other tissues. "A-and you lost your husband a few years ago, too. Life is so **cruel**!"

Mrs. Higurashi sighed heavily, dark eyes sorrowful. She looked up at her aged neighbor. "Do you remember how it was five, ten years ago?"

The other woman sighed dreamily. "Oh, what a fine time! After dinner, we all used to go out after the sun set for anmitsu in the summer, and oshiruko during winter, sometimes an-dango… and they hung paper lanterns in the streets. I miss being able to go outside at night…"

"Really? We'd go out for daifuku. It's –it was- Kagome's favorite. She liked an-daifuku. So does Souta." She sighed wistfully and hastily wiped her eyes. If someone had told her five years ago that today the world would be a crumbling mess of struggling politicians and terrified citizens, she would've suspected them of being crazy.

Mrs. Wanatabe glanced at her neighbor. "Was it really only six years ago? I can't even begin to imagine…" She glanced at her watch. "Oh, my! It's been **hours**! I'm sorry to have taken up so much of your time…"

"Oh, no! It was a pleasure having you over." Mrs. Higurashi smiled. "I just suddenly realized; how long ago was it since I've had someone over? Nowadays, everyone keeps to themselves because they're too afraid to stick out, or say something traitorous to a mob supporter."

"You know, you're right!" Mrs. Wanatabe shook her head wonderingly. "In fact, I think I'll call my old friend Noriko. I haven't spoken to her for three years, since my husband died." She stood up and bowed stiffly. "Thank you, again."

"Of course." Mrs. Higurashi broke out into the first sunny smile in a week. Step one: rally supporters. Now she had three.

(\ /)

(•. •)

( )

"Oh gods, it's hot," Kagome complained with a wistful glance at the burbling creek to her left. She sighed and watched the clear water flow over the stones, creating small currents and pools in the water. Deliciously cold, clear, refreshing water… "I'm worse than Buyo." She smiled quietly in spite of herself, fond memories of the large, lazy cat rising to the surface of her mind. The family's obese feline wouldn't do much unless it didn't require that he moved.

A white ear swiveled in her direction. Inuyasha looked down to the shady forest floor from the tree branch he was lounging in. The higher up, the better to catch a cool breeze, he'd learned. "Who's Buyo?"

The schoolgirl looked up at him stubbornly. "Uh-huh. Not until you tell me why you're a fugitive from my country."

"This again?" the hanyou asked irritably, amber eyes glimmering down at her through the thick foliage of the tree. The emerald leaves rustled quietly in a disappointingly muggy breeze and Inuyasha sighed unhappily. He hated this kind of weather. "I told you, it's none of your business, so keep your big nose out."

"Yes, 'this again', until you tell me why you're a fugitive." As an afterthought, the black-haired girl added, "And my nose isn't big."

Shippo rolled his emerald eyes at the two of them in disgust. He'd gotten bored of this conversation the third time they'd had it. The kitsune blocked out the rest of the argument; it was always the same, Kagome demanding that Inuyasha explain, to which the hanyou always refused, followed by a bunch of wild guesses from Kagome, and then Inuyasha accused Kagome of being nosy, and finally Kagome's huffy silence.

"I'm going to the creek," the ginger-haired child exclaimed. "C'mon, Kagome. Inuyasha's never gonna tell you." He stood up and tugged impatiently on the hem of Kagome's sleeve.

The black-haired girl sighed in resignation. "I know, but I can't help but try," she explained with a pointed glance into the branches of the towering tree.

The white-haired hanyou snorted and his ear flicked derisively. "So you're nosy **and** stubborn." He rolled onto his back and stared up at the myriad of swaying branches and waxy green leaves above him, shimmering as the wind crooned through the branches. "Why am I not surprised?" He smiled smugly.

"**You're** one to talk." Kagome's voice had a sour note to it as her the quiet crunch of her footsteps on the forest floor faded.

Shippo let go of the black-haired girl's sleeve and rushed over to the stream, an eager gleam in his green eyes. Pausing only to hastily remove his socks and sneakers, the kitsune splashed into the shallow water. "Ooh! It's cold!" He grinned happily, revealing his two fangs.

Kagome grinned delightedly. "It better be!" She followed him at a slower pace, a thoughtful expression on her face. Less than a week ago, those fangs would've alarmed her, immediately followed by a plethora of emotions conjured by what she'd been brought up believing. Demons were evil. Demons were bloodthirsty. Demons tricked humans and killed them. Demons were mindless killing machines.

The delighted smile on the kitsune's face widened as he grasped a large rock and dumped it deeper into the stream, deliberately splashing himself with the wonderfully cold water. For what felt like the umpteenth time, Kagome wondered how she once believed all of that propaganda.

Shippo grabbed another rock and tossed it farther down the stream. "Hey! It skipped!" The ginger-haired kitsune slogged through the water and grinned at Kagome. "Did you see that?" he demanded eagerly. "I skipped it three times!"

"Betcha I can do better," Kagome challenged with a grin.

"Betcha can't!" Shippo's sharp eyes quickly selected a nice flat stone. "Watch this!" The stone skipped down the brook and crashed into a bush. "Hah! Five!" Shippo taunted. "Beat that!"

Kagome wasn't paying attention. With wide eyes, she watched as the bush continued to rustle. "Uh, Shippo…" She pointed at the bush. "I think you got something mad." She grabbed the kitsune's hand tightly and slowly backed away, brown eyes fixed on the shuddering shrubbery.

"Uh-oh." Shippo backed away slowly. With incredulous green eyes, he watched the bush tremble again, and the air around it shivered. Mist leaked from the shrubbery in little tendrils, sinking down towards the ground. The hot day's temperature dropped as the fog spread out.

"C'mon." Kagome slowly turned and started to walk away at a fast pace, Shippo jogging along next to her to keep up, eyes wide with fascination as he watched the seasons change behind him. The leaves shriveled and became brown before dropping to the forest floor. The mist spread out towards them and over the small brook. The water froze abruptly, little fissures cracking on the smooth river stones at the abrupt change of temperature.

Kagome started running as a cold wind blew at their backs, making her shiver. Sure, in the past few days she'd seen demons. But she'd never heard of this before, or anything remotely similar. "Inuyasha!" She whispered as loudly as she dared with a darting glance behind her. It was snowing over there now.

"What?" The hanyou sighed irritably and opened one amber eye, a white ear flicking in her direction. He sniffed and golden eyes widened incredulously. "What the hell-" He dropped from the tree with ease. "What's going on?"

"I have no idea," Kagome replied, alarm flashing in her wide brown eyes. "Shippo threw a rock and it fell in the bush. Then it started shaking and then **this**,"  
she waved her hand vaguely at the odd scene, "happened."

"Huh," the hanyou snorted. Without a moment's hesitation, he walked into the fog. His feet slid on the frozen ground and his breath was visible in a puff of steam. White ears flicked when little ice crystals began to form on them.

"Inuyasha, are you sure that it's safe!" Kagome hollered anxiously after him.

"No!"

Shippo sighed. "Reckless as usual," he commented unhappily. "Or," the kitsune reconsidered, "maybe he knows what it is. He **has** lived here for the past year or so."

"But he's probably being reckless," Kagome replied. There was a sound of breaking ice, followed by a muffled curse and something crashing. It sounded large. The black-haired girl winced. "Definitely reckless."

Inuyasha stomped out of the swirling mist, amber eyes smoldering with anger at the thing in one hand, the other one brushing ice off of his head. "Pathetic," he spat. "What the hell are you doing?"

Kagome's eyes widened. In the hanyou's grasp –suspended upside down by one leg- was one of the oddest things that she'd ever seen, including the numerous demons that they'd run into so far. It looked like a turtle, but the arms were longer and more froglike with webbed feet. Similarly, its skin was a yellowish green. The head was blocky, with long bedraggled hair circling the skull. There was a large dent in the skull, from which an odd-looking liquid was dripping.

The kappa water sprite in the hanyou's grasp glared belligerently at him, a large bump on his forehead. "I could ask **you** the same thing," he retorted. "Unhand me this instant!" His voice was squeaky with outrage.

"Hey, isn't that a water sprite?" Shippo ventured forward, green eyes wide with curiosity. "I've never seen one of those befo-"

The sprite lunged and grabbed the kitsune with its free arms. "Put me down!" it hissed at Inuyasha, "Or I'll snap his neck!" Shippo struggled feebly in the water sprite's grasp, sock registering in his green eyes. How had something not much bigger than him manage such strength?

"No you won't," Inuyasha lifted the struggling sprite up to eye level as he growled low in his throat. "Because if you do, I'll kill you. And if I let you go, you'll probably just drown him, or eat his life force. Besides, your head's empty. You couldn't do shit."

Kagome shuddered, recalling one of the more gruesome legends that her grandfather had told her. Kappas attacked humans, horses and other big animals. They would then drag their prey into the nearest body of water, where it would do a variety of gruesome things. The kappa had a cavity atop its head to hold a fluid that gave the sprite strength. When the liquid spilled, the kappa would become feeble. And yet, this one still hand the strength to hold Shippo hostage.

"You've no choice!" the kappa growled menacingly. Suddenly, it didn't look as odd as it did frightening, like a thing out of a nightmare. "Ow!" The kappa withdrew its hand from around Shippo's throat when the kitsune lunged and bit down on it, fangs sinking into the froglike flesh.

"Kishunuhbi!" The kitsune spat out from around the sprite's flesh. Blue flames suddenly swirled around the sprite and it howled. It tossed the source of the flames- Shippo- away from it in a desperate attempt to stop the burning.

A mulish expression on his face, Shippo raised his hand again. "Kitsunebi!" Bluish flames swirled around his hand and gathered around the water sprite, which continued to howl.

Ears pressed flat against his head from the awful noise, Inuyasha held up the sprite.

A sudden idea caused Kagome to rush forward. "Now, promise to quit bothering people, and never harm anyone again." I hope this works…, she added silently. She watched the sprite carefully.

"Waaaah!" the kappa howled. "I promise! I promise! And a kappa always keeps a promise!"

The demi-demon nodded at Shippo, and the scowling kitsune reluctantly stopped hurling fire at the sprite.

With a contemptuous expression on his face, Inuyasha dropped the kappa to the still-frozen ground. "Now scram."

The kappa bowed low, gasping heavily from its ordeal. "You win," it told them with grudging respect. "And as such, I am now indebted to help you." The sprite looked at Kagome anxiously. "Is there anything you want?" He turned to Inuyasha. "What about you?" He pointedly ignored Shippo. "How can I be of service?"

"You can scram," Inuyasha replied sourly. "Get out of here. You're whining is annoying me." He wrinkled his nose. "And you stink of fish."

"Sorry. What about you?" The kappa turned it blocky head towards Kagome, pale eyes fixed on brown. "What do **you** want?"

Kagome shrugged, bewildered. "I… want to go home," she admitted.

The kappa looked disappointed. "Well, I don't think I can help you with that," it admitted and scratched it's head. "Unless you need a guide…?"

"Nope." Inuyasha sighed impatiently. "Now get out of here." Steam rose from the ground all around them. To the left, the stream burbled back into life as the ice finally melted. The fog was dissipating, swirling through the air as the warmth of the day took its toll.

"Very well." The kappa sighed unhappily. "Safe voyage!" It bowed once more before disappearing into the underbrush. The bush rustled and the kappa stuck it's head out. "By the way, miss, your shoe is untied!"

Kagome looked down at her feet. "But my shoes don't have laces…" she murmured. Brown eyes widened in surprise. Directly between her feet, the kappa had left a little pink bauble. She picked up wonderingly and rolled the perfectly round ball in her palm.

Shippo gazed at it with wide green eyes from his perch on Kagome's shoulder. "Wow. Shiny. Did the sprite give it to you?"

"I guess so." Kagome shrugged. "I don't know why, though." The bauble twinkled innocently in the shafts of buttery golden light that lanced through the thick foliage.

Inuyasha was stock still, his eyes the same color as the sunlight as he stared wonderingly at one of the most mysterious objects he'd ever heard of. "Are you saying that the kappa gave you the Shikon no Tama?"

Kagome blinked. "What's that?"

(\ /)

(•. •)

( )

"Help!"

Mrs. Higurashi sat up in bed, eyes wide and breath coming quickly. A cry for help. It was time to put her more daring strategy into play. Quietly, she pushed away the light summer sheets and stepped out of bed.

"Help!" It was a man's voice, desperate and forlorn. "Please, someone! I'll pay anything! Just let me in!"

Mrs. Higurashi hurried down the dark stairs, too worried to turn on a light. Her slippered feet made little sound as they padded across the carpet to the front door. With her heart pounding in her ears, Mrs. Higurashi opened the door a crack.

Pounding footsteps echoed through the silent, dark streets and distant shouts, jeering and cruel, reached her ears. Mrs. Higurashi shuddered. Was this how it had been for Kagome…?

Ragged breathing came from the street and nervous brown eyes peered out through the crack in the door.

A disheveled man in a business suit stumbled across the street, his breath coming in ragged sobs. Sharp, sympathetic eyes noticed the shock and disbelief on the middle-aged man's features. She could almost imagine what he was thinking as he stared down at his hands incredulously; it couldn't be real. It couldn't be **him**. There must be some mistake. He had a home, children perhaps, that he had to return to.

Mrs. Higurashi licked her lips nervously. "Excuse me!" she whispered as loudly as she dared as he stumbled by. He didn't seem to hear her. "Hey!" she tried, a bit louder.

The man stopped abruptly under the dingy illumination provided by a streetlight, eyes wide with panic. He wheeled around; rapid footsteps approached, jeering voices and torches through the murky dark. He had to run.

"Hey! Come here!" Mrs. Higurashi was at her wits' end. What if they say her…? It didn't make sense; she was endangering the lives of all she held dear for the sake of a stranger. What on earth had compelled her?

With a gasp of relief, the man rushed up the steps to her house and collapsed in the entryway. Mrs. Higurashi quickly shut the door, watching the window carefully. Without turning away, she told the man, "Please, take a seat. I'll go get you a glass of water after I make sure that no one saw you come here."

"Thank you so much." The man bowed low several times in a row as he gasped for breath. "Here," he fumbled with his wallet. "Please accept this humble offering as my thanks." He held out a large wad of bills.

Mrs. Higurashi sighed in relief. The mob gathered farther down the street, confused and angry as they waved their weapons around in the night. No had seen. The middle-aged woman turned. "No, keep your money," she told him gently. "To repay me, you can simply do what I've done for you tonight for someone else."

The man nodded fervently and leaned against the couch. "I definitely will. Thank you again."

Mrs. Higurashi's smile widened, a warm contented feeling spreading through her for the first time since Kagome disappeared. She saved a life. Something told her that she should do this more often. "I'll go get you a blanket and a glass of water. Do you mind spending the night on the couch?"

"I wouldn't mind sleeping on the floor," the man admitted. He stood up and bowed again. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Mrs. Higurashi walked out of the room, in search of extra blankets.

Behind her, the man put his head in his hands. His voice a hoarse whisper, he wondered aloud, "Where would I be now if she hadn't let me in?"

(•.•)

--( • )--

"So, you're telling me that I have one of the most valuable things in the world in the palm of my hand." Kagome's voice was frank and incredulous. "…You're joking, right?"

"Do you honestly think that I'd joke about something this serious?" the hanyou snapped at her, amber eyes flashing angrily.

"Well, so-**rry**! Don't blow a ghasket or anything," Kagome grumbled. "I mean, I've never even **heard** of this thing and you're telling me it's one of the most important objects in the world. You can see how I'd find that hard to believe, don't you?"

Inuyasha scratched a white ear with one clawed hand. "Not many people have," he admitted. He sighed, amber eyes sweeping across the glade that they were sitting in. Cicadas droned incessantly and the long green grass rustled in the muggy afternoon breeze. The cloudless cornflower blue sky soared above, the sun flashing overhead.

Protected by a large tree on the outskirts of the meadow, Kagome and Shippo watched their guide expectantly. "And I don't know much." He glanced at the pink bauble in Kagome's hand. "From what I've heard, it's some sort of symbolic thing."

"What for?" Shippo interrupted, green eyes skeptical as he looked at the jewel. "It doesn't look very symbolic to **me**. It's a round pink thing. How is that 'symbolic'?"

"I was getting there. Now quit interrupting me."

Several seconds later, Shippo found himself nursing a bump on his head and a grudge against a certain white-haired hanyou.

"It's supposed to be made out of a human and a demon soul." Inuyasha glanced at Shippo. "How's that for symbolic?"

Kagome rolled the glittering sphere around on her palm. "How's this a **soul**?"

"If you'll shut up long enough, I'll tell ya." The hanyou leaned against the rough bark, oblivious to the angry glance that the schoolgirl shot in his direction. "Hn… I think it was some sort of 'for the good of the earth' sort of crap. Some priestess named Midoriko and a demon." He snorted. "I can't see how it'd benefit humanity and demons, though. I betcha they were both suicidal nuts who wanted to make a statement."

"So, you don't know anything else?"

Amber eyes flickered as the hanyou watched the Shikon no Tama. It glimmered in the patchy sunlight. "Not really."

"Well, that was helpful," Shippo commented sarcastically, bushy tail flicking derisively.

"Hey," Inuyasha retorted, "I don't see **you** offering up any information." He lapsed into silence, a frown creasing his forehead as he thought. "I wonder what a kappa sprite was doing with it, though…"

"Whaddaya mean?" Shippo's scowl at the hanyou melted away into curiosity.

Inuyasha heaved an exasperated sigh. "Will you quit asking me all these stupid questions? I'm tryin' to think."

"I didn't know that you **could** think," Shippo snickered, green eyes glittering with mischief.

Inuyasha's fist swung down and deftly knocked a few points from the kitsune's ego. "That rocks been missing for about fifty years. No one really knew what happened to it, but humans thought that demons stole it, and demons likewise. I'd say that's how things got so screwy today."

"So you're saying that the disappearance of the Tama is the source of over half of all the problems in today's world." Kagome shook her head incredulously and rolled the jewel around in her palm. "Geeze. This thing's pretty important, isn't it?"

"That's an understatement. And you're wrong; demons are doing just fine. It's the **humans** who're crumbling. And I don't think it's got much to do with the Shikon, myself." He paused, the heat encompassing them all like an oppressive blanket. Out in the meadow, insects zipped back and forth over the long emerald grass as it waved slowly in a light afternoon breeze.

Eyes bright with curiosity, Kagome asked, "What do you mean?" It was a not-so-subtle attempt to delve into his past, and the schoolgirl was pleasantly surprised when he replied, rather than calling her nosy again.

"The problems in your society don't have anything with the jewel." He shrugged and glanced at the sky. "We should get going. If we hurry, we could make it to Matachi by tonight."

(\ /)

(0.0)

( )

"How can it be so hot during the day and so cold at night?" Kagome wondered aloud, shuddering. It didn't help that she was stuck in a short skirt without a jacket. Something dropped onto her head. "Ah!"

"Will you shut up?" Inuyasha's voice was exasperated. "And is there anything that you don't scream at?"

Kagome realized that she had his haori. "Are you sure you don't need this?" Regretfully, she held it up for him to take if he reconsidered.

"Nah. I'll be fine." There was mild amusement in the hanyou's voice. "Now go to sleep. I don't wanna hafta wake you up in the morning like I did yesterday."

Kagome smiled slightly. She'd finally gotten up at what she figured was around nine. Much too late for a certain hanyou… She wrapped the warm cloth tighter around her. "Thanks."

"No problem." Up in the heights of a towering tree, Inuyasha stretched out on a limb. Kagome was right; it had gotten pretty cold. Stars twinkled through the thick foliage of the tree and large green leaves swayed restlessly in a phantom breeze. Shafts of moonlight lanced through the trees, illuminating patches of forest floor with pearly light.

Matachi was one day away.

(•.•)

--( • )--

An embarrassed flush stained the schoolgirl's cheeks as she walked hesitantly through the bustling crowds of people, painfully aware that her once smart pleated green skirt and starched shirt were hopelessly stained, wrinkled, and torn.

The outpost was completely different from what she had been expecting. It certainly wasn't like home; people here didn't wear business suits or school uniforms, and the buildings were all made of wood rather than steel and concrete. But it wasn't primitive; the people who bustled to and fro wore sneakers and modern clothes, digital watches often glinting in the sun.

Kagome recalled what Inuyasha had told her on the way there;

"_No," the hanyou sighed huffily, "they're **not** primitive. They live in wooden houses and don't have electricity because they're smart. Demons would attack power lines or generators. With the panic over the loss of power, they'd attack and wreak havoc to the town. They're self-reliant." Inuyasha leapt over a fallen tree effortlessly_.

_"And besides," he added, "they don't need any of it. They're probably better off as is_."

A white ear flicked impatiently. "Are you done gawking like a tourist yet? We've still got some ground to cover."

Kagome turned back to him. "Oh. Yeah, coming." She followed the hanyou as he maneuvered through the crowd, pausing only to glare an ox that snorted at him. The black-haired and grubby schoolgirl was surprised by the recognition that their guide received from the townspeople.

An elderly woman inclined her head politely to the hanyou, a large basket of laundry under one arm. "Goodday, Inuyasha." Shrewd eyes glanced at the two following him. "Are ya lookin' fer Tanaka?"

"Isn't everyone?" the hanyou retorted. "Yeah, I am. Got some customers." He shoved his thumb in the other two's direction, amber eyes businesslike. "You know where she is?"

"She's where she always is. You know that she never comes out." The woman cast the hanyou and his friends a sideways glance. "Unless it's to chase unpaying customers." She cackled before walking away.

Inuyasha signaled for them to follow. "You just gonna stand there all day? C'mon!"

Kagome jogged through a myriad of busy people, Shippo bouncing along on her shoulder. "Who's Tanaka?" she inquired as soon as she caught up with the hanyou. "And what did that lady mean, when she was talking about customers?"

"And you said that you aren't nosy." The hanyou smirked at the schoolgirl. "You'll see soon enough. Unless you have a lot of money with you?"

Kagome shook her head, apprehension knotting her stomach. What was Inuyasha getting her into?

(\ /)

(•. •)

( )

Fifteen minutes later, Kagome found herself standing in the middle of a dingy empty street. Small piles of refuse cluttered the sides of the muddy lane, and the wooden buildings on either side were silvery with age.

Inuyasha stood on a filthy concrete step and rapped his fist impatiently on a weathered screen door. "Hey, Tanaka! I know you're there! Come out!"

Kagome bit her lip nervously. "Hey, are you sure this is a good idea, Inuyasha?" She recalled the smirk that he'd shot at her when she told him she didn't have any money. Somehow, she found it slightly ominous. "I mean, you said you'd just take us this far. I'm sure me'n Shippo can find our way, right?"

The kitsune didn't like the situation any more than Kagome. "Yeah, we'll be fine, really!" The ginger-haired demon forced a grin at Inuyasha. "We'll take it from here, okay?"

"It's all right," Inuyasha replied, a smirk widening on his face, revealing his two fangs. "I don't mind going a bit out of my way."

The screen door creaked open on rusty springs and two button-bright black eyes peered out at the hanyou through the crack. Gnarled fingers clutched the weathered wood of the door. "Ah! Inuyasha." The eyes quickly scanned the street. "I see you've brought some friends along."

Inuyasha waved them over. "C'mon! You won't get anywhere standing there all day." After exchanging wary looks, Kagome trudged up the narrow muddy lane to the doorway.

"Wait-wait-wait." The door banged open, knocking Inuyasha from the step in the process. A hunched old woman emerged from the depths of the house, a sock swinging in one gnarled hand.

"Hey, Tanaka!" Inuyasha glared at the old woman, amber eyes smoldering with ire. "You could've just **asked** me to move!"

"Takes too long," the elderly woman replied absently. Black eyes narrowed in concentration as she waved the fluffy white sock in Kagome's shocked face. "Watch the sock, girlie."

The schoolgirl backed away. "What do you think you're doing?" she demanded. "Waving socks in people's faces. That's just rude!" The irate Kagome turned to Inuyasha, brandishing a finger at the old woman. "She's crazy!"

Arms folded across his chest, Inuyasha glared down at the black-haired schoolgirl. "Do you wanna go home or not?" Kagome opened her mouth to object. "That's what I thought. If you wanna go home, let Tanaka wave the stupid sock in your face."

"What's a sock got to do with going home?" Kagome grumbled, but nevertheless she grudgingly stepped up to the door again and glared at the sock as it swung back and forth in front of her.

"Kya!" The woman whipped the sock back around and whapped Kagome in the face with it.

Inuyasha watched with more than mild amusement as the girl wheeled back, a stunned and speechless. Her expression didn't stay that way for long, and soon turned stormy with outrage. "Wh-what was that for?" she demanded furiously, a hand to her cheek.

The old woman ignored her outburst and hobbled towards Shippo. "Come here, kid."

"No way!" Green eyes wide with panic darted from left to right. The alleyway was narrow, but if he could get to the street… He dove to the right, towards the street.

"Nice try!" Tanaka lunged after him and came up short, the squirming kitsune held up by his tail, which was bushy with panic.

"Help! Kagome! Inuyasha!" he shrieked, green eyes huge in his face. "She's gonna **kill** me!"

Mouth set in a grim line and brown eyes glinting with determination, Kagome strode up to the old woman and poked a finger in her face. "I've had enough of you and your stupid games, you crazy old lady. If all you're going to do is hit us with socks and terrorize Shippo, then I think I'm done here." She put her hands on her hips. "Now put Shippo down and we'll be on our way."

A large hand gripped her arm. "I don't think you want to do that," Inuyasha told her softly, eyes urging her to trust him. "Really."

The old woman cackled. "I won't be a moment more, dearie. I'm just about through." She waved the sock around in the air and the kitsune scrunched up his eyes, anticipating the blow. The sock swung down and hit Shippo across the face, making him sneeze.

Tanaka held up the sock, black eyes sparkling shrewdly. "The sock has determined that you're allowed in." She hobbled back up the step and into the weathered house. "What a good sock," she crooned.

Inuyasha's grip on Kagome's elbow only tightened as he pulled her into the house. All it took to convince Shippo was a ferocious amber glare, and the kitsune was scurrying after him eagerly.

The screen shut with a bang and Tanaka quietly closed the heavy wooden door behind it. "Come on, kids!" She hobbled down a dingily-lit hall cluttered with demon paraphernalia and faded plastic flowers. "This way!" She giggled eagerly, like a small child about to receive a birthday present.

For Kagome, it was almost surreal. Was this really happening? Had she come all this way to be lead through a crazy woman's house? There had to be a catch. Desperately, the schoolgirl clung to some sort of reason. Perhaps Tanaka would lead her to someone else, who could take her home…

Inuyasha's grip on the schoolgirl's elbow tightened slightly when she sagged slightly. "Come on," he insisted. When she didn't respond, he sighed. "Just trust me, okay?"

With a bit of grumbling on her part, Kagome straightened again and kept walking. "Oh, sure. Trust you. I've been trusting my instinct, and it's telling me that this won't get me anywhere," she retorted.

"Well, you're instinct's off. By a lot." The hanyou marched her along as they turned yet another corner and entered a dusty old room filled with cardboard boxes.

Kagome was at her wits' end. "Oh, look!" She laughed. "Salvation! A bunch of boxes! We're saved, Shippo! Just hop in one of those, and you'll magically appear **home**!"

Tanaka closed the door gently behind the schoolgirl before straightening. "If only that were the case," she sighed. She pulled a small brass chain on an ancient-looking lamp. With a click, it turned on and cast the small room with a faint orange glow. She surveyed Shippo and Kagome with calm black eyes. "I must apologize for my behavior in the yard. I have neighbors in the pay of your government who would simply **love** to catch a smuggler, as you can imagine."

Kagome stared at the elderly woman, speechless. It was as if she was standing before a completely different woman. Rather than standing hunched over, the woman before her stood straight and tall, her eyes radiating calm rather than glaring suspicion.

"Please, sit down." Tanaka indicated the various cardboard boxes that filled up the room. "I understand that you have a rather pressing issue that you would like to discuss with me."

"You can let got of my elbow now," Kagome informed Inuyasha. Hastily, the hanyou removed his hand. The schoolgirl turned to the elderly woman again. "I want to go home."

Tanaka's eyebrows raised. "And where do you live, young lady?" She snapped her fingers. "Wait, would it perhaps be across the Border?"

Kagome nodded. "Just across the Border. I fell down a cliff, and that's how I got here."

Tanaka sighed. "Dear, my operation isn't **that** big. But I can offer you some advice," she added when Kagome slumped slightly. "There's a variety of ways you could get across the Border. You could have your hanyou friend there run you up the cliffs himself and drop you over, for one-"

"Do I look like a pack horse to you?" Inuyasha demanded. "And it wouldn't work, anyway. We'd get shot down in an instant."

"I was simply thinking aloud, child," Tanaka reprimanded gently. "Now let's see… you couldn't pass of as an ambassador- they're all dignified old demons- or even one of their clerks. You're human."

"No shit," Inuyasha snickered.

"Quiet, Izayoi's boy." Black eyes flashed with irritation at the white-haired teen. "It's the cliffs themselves that are a problem," she mused and glanced around the dusty room. "If you get past the cliffs, you're as good as home. They don't patrol the wall itself, just the cliff coming up."

"Maybe I could float Kagome up as a bubble," Shippo suggested. "If I do it from far away at night, and we go over the wall."

Black eyes twinkled kindly. "It's a good suggestion. But you'd have to carry your friend up about a mile away and then high above the wall itself, or you'll be shot down, even at night." Tanaka lapsed into silence. "No, there's only one thing I can see you doing." She turned to Inuyasha. "Take them to the Embassy in the demon capitol."

"What?" Inuyasha barked. "How would **that** help? And besides, I only said I'd take them this far. The capitol's over a week away, even for me!"

"If I recall, child, you're not particularly busy." Tanaka stood up. "And it's the only sure-fire way of getting you across safely."

"Oh, yeah. 'Sure-fire'," Inuyasha grumbled. "That's only if they survive the journey and don't get sick, eaten, fall down the mountain, freeze to death, get past those stupid guards, enter the city, don't get eaten there, get accepted into the Embassy as part of the Ambassador's clerks or somethin', and aren't killed on the human side for being part of the Embassy." He snorted as Shippo and Kagome went pale. "Oh, that sounds 'sure-fire' to me."

(•.•)

--( • )--

AN: Questions, comments, complaints, demands, suggestions, queries, and all that other stuff are welcome and appreciated.

(A not-so-subtle way of saying "Please review!")

Thanks for readin', and now I hafta sleep.


	4. Shikon no Tama

Sorry everyone! I know, it took a while for me to get along with this next chapter. I was wrapping up another story… As of now, the unedited draft of "Haunted" is now one chapter short of complete! Just gotta fix the spelling mistakes and fix up some bad parts…

**Zoderella**: Thanks! Glad it's going well so far!

**Aeika**: I know the feeling completely… I guess everyone's on vacation and stuff. It makes me sad. XD Those people with lives!

**Angel4life**: Thanks! Took my quite a while to get the whole chapter figured out in my head, actually, so I'm glad that it turned out well. Yes; your vocabulary is incredibly extensive.

**lunabasketcase**: Thank you! Glad ya like it!

**InvictusCanisDeus**: Thanks!

**NewSalemWitch**: You're very close; originally Miroku gets saved –because I think Sango would fight rather than run from the mob, being that she's a warrior type, she'd probably take 'em all out, too- but then I thought that while Miroku was more likely to run –much more likely- it might make parts of the rest of the story confusing, depending what I do with it. I've got plans for Miroku… So to play it safe, I made it this random middle-aged man. XD. To be honest, though, after I wrote it, I didn't think that Mrs. Higurashi would endanger her son and father like that. Thanks!

**DaisyLee1239**: Hope you didn't wait too long for an update! You've got an interesting idea, and yes, Kagome and Shippo are going to make it over the border, but it's gonna take a while… You're pretty close to what I have in mind- and yours is a great idea. So really, it's gonna be kinda similar, but with lotsa twists and stuff. (Yay! Twists!)

**Hanyouluverr**: Thanks! (to be honest, the last chapter wasn't quite as long as the others… perhaps about a page less?) But I'm glad they're long enough for ya!

**Chi**: I'm glad you enjoyed it so much! Sorry about the shortened chapters; I think that when I made 'em longer, the story tended to drag a bit because I was trying to fill space rather than come up with good story material. Hope it wasn't too long of a wait!

**amatori**: that is a very good question. Apparently –I haven't seen this book myself- but the source where I found the ages says that there's a notation about Inuyasha's age being judged by how he acts, or something like that. That's quite a paradox though, isn't it? I mean, I already **said** he was fifteen, and if human/demon age is like a ratio, then he'd probably be an infant if he was fifteen. And since you say he's 1500, counting the whole pinned-to the tree thing (which I don't think would count), then the youkai to human ratio is about 150:15, or 10: 1… Hm. That makes sense, though. I'll keep that in mind, and thanks for pointing it out! You've given me quite a lot to think about.

**kairo**: No sweat, Sango 'n Miroku will pop up sometime soon… That is to say, they **will** be in the story. I don't honestly know how soon, though I'm predicting three to five chapters, six on the very outside. They will have pretty large parts, needless to say.

**inuyasha's hun**: Yup; Inuyasha's feeling sooo happy and joyful and stuff. I mean, who wouldn't want to trek through lots of dangerous beasts and across rugged terrain for a series of weeks to go to a place where everyone scorns him, with a girl that is very camping incapable, and a little kid who insults you every chance he gets? Sounds like lotsa fun, if ya ask me…. XD. (I feel kinda bad for him.)

**rinsama1989**: Heh… I'm not quite sure what possessed me with the whole sock-thingy. Kinda went off on a whim, there…. Hope you weren't waiting too long!

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Disclaimer: Not mine.

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Unattainable

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Chapter Four: Shikon no Tama

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"Well, it's the most sure-fire plan I could come up with." Tanaka shook her greyed head wearily and glanced at Kagome. "I'd offer you more assistance, but as I've told you, I'm under watch. So I'm going to give you some camping supplies. I'll put it on your tab, Inuyasha."

"Tab?" the hanyou echoed incredulously. "I don't owe you **anything**!"

"You've required my expertise more than once," the elderly woman retorted. "Or have you forgotten that without me, you'd probably be locked up in some prison?" She continued; "And at great expense for myself. I've had to change my name, run away from home, and now I'm stuck living **here**. Mind you, it's in better shape than over there."

Kagome glanced sharply at the old woman. "Did you help him escape from the Embassy?"

"Help him?" Tanaka shook her head. "No, I did it for him." She shot a sideways glance at the hanyou in question. "He was too… traumatized to be of any use, even for **himself**. I nearly had to drag him out."

"Shut it, Tanaka," Inuyasha snapped tersely.

"Whaddaya mean?" Shippo asked innocently, picking up from where Kagome left off.

"That's not for me to say." The elderly woman smiled sadly and shook her head. She nodded in Inuyasha's direction. The hanyou seemed preoccupied with tracing dusty patterns on the concrete floor. "That's **his** story to tell, not mine."

"So don't tell it," Inuyasha reprimanded, his voice harsh. "And let's get out of here. This dust is unbearable."

(\ /)

(•. •)

( )

Half an hour later, the three of them left the house, weighed down with gargantuan backpacks and full stomachs, both courtesy

They trudged down the alley, Inuyasha brooding and silent as Kagome's thoughts turned round and round in her mind. What was Tanaka's real name? Why did she help Inuyasha escape? And **why** was Inuyasha a fugitive?

It all came back to that one question. Why? She glanced at the hanyou thoughtfully. Obviously, it still bothered him, whatever it was. Ever since Tanaka –or whatever her name really was- brought it up, he had been acting very subdued. It was starting to make her nervous.

They turned a corner, and all of Kagome's concerns fled from her mind. "Baths!" She grinned delightedly.

"You're lucky that I happen to be on good terms with the owner," Inuyasha told her. His voice still had that dead tone to it.

Kagome frowned, the bath temporarily forgotten. "Hey, what's with you?" she demanded.

"Yeah," Shippo continued. "You're acting really weird. It's starting to scare me."

Inuyasha shrugged and walked up to the bath's front entrance. "Just thinking."

Shippo shuddered. "That's what I mean! Since when do you **think**?"

Though his fist was raised to knock on the door, Inuyasha had no qualms about swinging it down on Shippo's head. "I don't expect **you** to understand," he told the kitsune brusquely.

"What about me?" Kagome asked. She paused. "Does it have to do with being a fugitive?"

Inuyasha stiffened visibly. "Perhaps. Now shut up. I need to talk to the owner." He raised his fist again and banged his fist against the door. "Hey! Mushin!" He paused, eyebrows lowered in an irritated frown. "Mushin!" he demanded again. "Open up, I know you're there!"

Heavy footsteps, muffled through the door, approached the entrance. The door swung open, revealing an elderly drunk. "Oh, Inuyasha." Mushin scratched his stomach. "Whaddaya want?"

"Baths. And beds." Amber eyes glinted warningly. "You **do** owe me, you know."

Mushin grumbled for a moment before grudgingly admitted them. "But **three**, Inuyasha?" He took a heavy gulp from a sake jug. "You're terrible for business."

"So're you," Inuyasha snorted. "You drink away all of your earnings. Now let us in."

Mushin complied, muttering something about "manners" under his rank breath. "Room's upstairs. Take eleven." He pointed a sausage-like finger at a rickety old staircase. "You know where the baths are, Inuyasha."

"Eleven and what room?" the hanyou asked pointedly.

"The kid can sleep with the two of you, can't he?" Mushin asked. "I **do** get customers, Inuyasha. And they **pay**, too!"

"Well, if it's one for the kid, too, then that'll make it **three** rooms, won't it?" Inuyasha glared furiously at the old man.

Kagome caught on as well. "Hey! Just who do you think I am, mister?" the irate schoolgirl demanded.

"You mean you two aren't-" He broke off when Inuyasha's growl rose in a furious crescendo.

"No, we're **not**, thank you!" he shouted. "You perverted old man!" He shook his head derisively and stalked out of the room. "Go take a bath, Kagome. And take Shippo with you. He stinks of something awful. I'll go find two rooms."

"I do **not**!" the kitsune hollered after his retreating back. Shippo paused and sniffed. "I do **not**!" he repeated loudly. "It's my sweatshirt!"

"We're lucky that Tanaka had some clothes that fit you," Kagome acknowledged as they rounded a corner and came upon the entrance to the baths.

"Yeah," Shippo admitted. "I wonder where she got them…"

Kagome shrugged, temporarily uninterested. "A bath!" she sighed happily. "I can't wait to get all this **grime** off of me." And –courtesy again of Tanaka- some clean clothes. Speaking of which… "That's a good question, Shippo. I mean, she lives alone, right? Why would she have boxes of clothes sitting around?"

She lowered herself into the steaming water with a contented sigh. "A nice, warm bath. Not a quick dip in some freezing stream, not splashing around in a tiny creek." Her contented smile widened into a grin. "And soap!"

(\ /)

(0.0)

( )

Mrs. Higurashi's little campaign was going well.

So far, she'd saved four people's lives –in such a short amount of time, which really said something about the violence and brutality in the mobs- and knew of twelve people she could trust.

The middle-aged woman turned her head, eyes critical as she looked at her reflection in the mirror. Was that **another** grey hair? And did she have those creases at the corners of her eyes last time she checked?

Needless to say, this little game she was playing was incredibly dangerous, as well as very stressful. Lips pursed, she said to the mirror, "Which is why I had to send Souta and Dad somewhere safe." She paused, staring at her reflection, and sighed. But it was lonely, sitting all alone in her house with only the endless ticking of the clock on the mantle to keep her company.

A sudden rap on the door immediately pulled her out of her thoughts, and she froze, her hand inches above the hairbrush. Could it be the mob? At this time of day? Nervously, she checked her watch: four o'clock. But, they were getting bolder and bolder, no longer waiting for the sun to go down before searching the streets.

Mrs. Higurashi took a deep breath and willed her trembling nerves to calm. It was becoming a familiar sensation, fear. She was getting more and more paranoid. Deliberately, the middle-aged woman walked down the stairs, her hand gripping the worn wooden banister. Every knock at the door was a murderer, every phone call an accusation. She didn't know how much longer she could live like this.

The rap came again. To satisfy her nerves, Mrs. Higurashi peeked out through the curtains to see who was at the door. "Oh…" Her shoulders slumped in relief as she opened the door. "Hello, Eri. And how've you been doing, Ayumi? Is your father out of the hospital?" She smiled warmly at her daughter's friends.

"He got out three days ago," Ayumi replied with a small smile.

"Well," Eri began slowly, "we know it's kinda late, but…" She pulled a bouquet of flowers out from behind her back.

"We just came to say that we're sorry about Kagome." Ayumi was staring hard at the ground. "Really, really, sorry."

"Thank you, girls." Mrs. Higurashi's eyes were bright with unshed tears. "It's a very kind gesture." Suddenly remembering her duties as hostess, she stepped back from the doorway. "Please, come in."

Eri shook her head. "No thanks, Higurashi-san. I've got lots of homework. Ayumi and Yuka and me are going to study together at Yuka's."

"Oh, the entrance exams are coming up, aren't they?" With no teenage daughter of her own to remind her, Mrs. Higurashi had forgotten completely about high school.

"Yeah…" Ayumi sighed. "I wish schools would just let people in." Eri nodded fervently in agreement. There was an awkward pause as Mrs. Higurashi stared at the flowers.

"Well," the middle-aged woman concluded abruptly, "I don't want to keep you waiting. Thank you so much for the flowers."

"No problem, Higurashi-san!" Ayumi regained some of her normal cheerfulness.

"Good luck with the exam!" Mrs. Higurashi waved and closed the door, the flowers clutched tightly in one hand as she bit her lip.

The clock on the mantle ticked quietly, a steady rhythm that calmed her nerves as she blinked unshed tears away. It was best to come to terms, she knew that. But at the same time, if she stopped to really think about it, Mrs. Higurashi wasn't sure if she would be able to deal with the result. It was every parent's nightmare to outlive their children, and for Mrs. Higurashi, it was now a painfully real one.

Which was why she had to continue what she was doing, despite the high stakes.

(\ /)

(•. •)

( )

Kagome was humming happily to herself as she walked up the old, creaky staircase. Oh, to be truly **clean** again! She paused and looked down at her clothes. Well, they weren't quite what she'd been hoping for, but who could complain, when her school uniform was so dirty? Even after a thorough scrubbing, the thing was still looking worn and rumpled. Nothing some bleach and an iron wouldn't cure, if there was any…

She shrugged and stepped into the hallway. "You sure seem cheerful," Inuyasha observed from a moth-eaten sofa at the other end of the hall. His amber eyes were focused on the worn rug beneath his bare feet.

"Sure am. I'm clean!" Her grin disappeared. "You, on the other hand, don't look even **remotely** cheerful. Ever since we visited Tanaka."

"Whaddaya mean?" the hanyou demanded. "I always look like this." Amber eyes glared into calm brown for a moment before turning back to the floor.

"What's bugging you, anyway?" The couch wheezed a cloud of dust as she sat down next to him.

The hanyou turned away and stared at the wall. "I'm fine," he grumbled half-heartedly. "Here." He tossed her a key before she could protest. "Your room's over there. Number twelve. I'm eleven, and I wanna leave tomorrow morning **before** noon, so you better be ready."

Kagome sighed. It didn't seem like she was about to get any answers from Inuyasha today. And from the way things had gone so far, it wasn't likely that she ever was. "Thanks."

Inuyasha stood up and walked into his own room without replying.

"Jeez," Kagome grumbled. "And he says that nothing's bothering him."

(\ /)

(•. •)

( )

"So Inuyasha, how long is this journey going to take?" Shippo's green eyes stared avidly at the forest around them. Vivid red and orange leaves drifted from the barren limbs of towering trees to fall on the damp autumn earth below.

"Hopefully, less than a month," the hanyou replied calmly as he shouldered the larger of the two backpacks.

Kagome stopped abruptly. "What?"

"If it was just me, it'd take less than a week," Inuyasha grumbled. "But since there's you, Shippo, and two backpacks, we're not going to go quite that fast."

"Oh." Kagome heaved a sigh. "Well, let's get going, then." She grabbed the other backpack and headed off down the road, leaves crunching beneath her shoes.

"Kagome." The schoolgirl turned, a puzzled expression on her face.

"What?" She glanced down the trail. "This **is** the right way, isn't it?"

There was a strange emotion hidden in Inuyasha's eyes as he went on. "Do you remember what I said at Tanaka's?" Kagome nodded, still puzzled. "I wasn't exaggerating about this journey. Just wanted to warn ya that it's not gonna be easy." He shrugged uncomfortably. "Just for the record, if you die, it's not my fault."

The schoolgirl's eyebrows met with an almost audible click. "What's **that** supposed to mean?" she demanded hotly.

"Just what it sounds like," the hanyou retorted waspishly. He stomped ahead, muttering as he went by, "I don't know why I even try."

"He's right though, for once," Shippo admitted. "I remember when me and my parents left as part of the Embassy, there were lotsa guards and strict rules for staying with the camp, because outside there were really bad demons that didn't believe in the Embassy's work."

"You mean, they didn't want peace between humans and demons?" Kagome inquired curiously, having next to no knowledge concerning demons.

Shippo shook his head. "I think so. I'm not really sure, though. It was ten human years ago. It's kinda foggy."

"He's right. Most demons were opposed to the Embassy last time I was there, because of what happened with the Shikon no Tama." Inuyasha had finally come out of his sulk. "The only reason why there even **was** an Embassy was because the current rulers of the country- if you could call it a country- wanted to keep in touch."

"You mean when the Shikon no Tama disappeared?" Thoughtfully, she pulled the glittering pink sphere out of her pocket and rolled it around in her palm. "So this thing must be really important, then."

Inuyasha snorted. "Don't be stupid. Of course it's important! And that's not what I meant, when I said fifty years ago. What happened was, the Tama disappeared, and then a group of outraged demons went on a rampage."

Kagome's eyebrows shot up as they continued walking. "No **wonder** demon/human relations are so bad right now."

There was a dark expression to Inuyasha's eyes as he replied. "Better than then," he murmured.

Kagome frowned. "Wait, now I'm completely confused. You mean it was worse when demons and humans were on good terms?"

Inuyasha shook his head wearily. "Just forget I said anything." Amber eyes turned towards the small pink bauble still resting in Kagome's palm. "And put that away somewhere. No, **not** in your pocket!" he barked. "It's could fall out!" He shook his head in exasperation. "Here, put in here." He held out a small brown pouch. "And put it around your neck. That way you won't lose it."

"Quit treating me like a little kid," Kagome retorted. "I can take care of a simple little marble." But she took the small bag from him anyway and put it around her neck.

The hanyou snorted. "You can't take care of **yourself** out here, let alone the Tama."

Kagome pursed her lips, eyes burning. **That** stung. Fiercely, she wiped the back of her hand over her eyes and replied tartly, "It's not my fault that I ended up here. And it looks like I'll be here for a while, so you could at least **try** not to act like a complete jerk?"

"What?" The hanyou's jaw went slack with surprise for a moment. "You should be **grateful**! First, I saved your life and lead you to the nearest people, and **now** I'm using one month of my life **at least** to get you home!"

Kagome knew he was right, and that only made her angrier. "Well, you could be nicer about it!" She fell into silence, brown eyes glaring daggers at the ground, knuckles white as she gripped the straps of the large yellow backpack she was wearing.

"Man." Shippo rolled his eyes. "You guys are like those couples you see on TV. Always fighting!"

Inuyasha's only response was a swift rap on the kitsune's head. "Yes," the kitsune muttered mutinously, as soon as the hanyou was no longer paying any attention. "You'd be one of those abusive alcoholic fathers."

Kagome's mouth quirked in a small smile as the sulking hanyou's ear twitched. "Shut up."

"What, isn't it true?" Shippo goaded, delighted at finally being able to get Inuyasha back for the past week's pain and humiliation.

"You dumb brat. Can't you tell that we're being followed?" the white-haired teen reprimanded quietly, white ears flickering to catch small noises.

"Are you sure?" Kagome asked, brown eyes darting nervously from one side of the trail to the other.

"Trust me." Inuyasha fell back with the other two and handed Kagome his backpack.

The schoolgirl staggered under the added weight. "Well, this is great," she muttered under her breath. "Five minutes down the road and we're being stalked." She heaved the other backpack- "This thing is **heavy**!"- higher in her arms.

"This is stupid." She put down the backpack and turned to Inuyasha, brown eyes frank. "Why don't we just stop and wait for whatever it is to come out?"

The white-haired hanyou glowered at her. "Tell me, do you know what 'subtle' mea-"

There was no indication that anything had moved, and yet some by some instinct Inuyasha managed to turn around and rake his claws across their stalker's arm… if it **was** an arm, Kagome speculated numbly.

It was another demon, beady black eyes bulging as it let out a primordial bellow of pain and rage.

"Stand back!" Inuyasha hollered over the beast's noise to the other two. "You'll only get in the way!" He turned back to the demon. "Hey, get out of here! Go away!"

"Gee, thanks," Kagome grumbled, knowing he was right. She stood back and watched as Inuyasha made short work of the demon, claws biting into various points of demons body. And yet, the schoolgirl realized with wide eyes, the demon didn't seem focused on the hanyou at all.

The large beast kept aiming for **her**.

With one last howl, the large demon collapsed in the middle of the road, eyes filmed over in death. "Don't say I didn't warn ya." Without a backward glance, Inuyasha stepped over the corpse and wiped his bloody hands on a nearby bush.

"Come on, Kagome." He picked up his backpack and stomped off. "Great," he grumbled to himself. "Now I stink of blood."

"Inuyasha?" Kagome caught up to the hanyou. "That demon was going after **me**. Why?" Before he could open his mouth, she added, "And don't say that I was imagining it. I know what I saw."

The hanyou sighed heavily. "Why are you asking me? And maybe he was after Shippo, or something. I dunno."

Kagome stared at him intently. "You're **lying**," she concluded slowly.

He sighed again, this time in resignation. It couldn't hurt to tell her just a **little**, could it? He glanced at Kagome. And this time, it was her business. "Fine," he said sourly. "But I'm only telling you this much, because you're now involved. If you ask me any more questions, I'll strand you here, got it?"

"Yeah, whatever," the schoolgirl replied airily. "So, tell me."

"The Shikon no Tama." A white ear flicked agitatedly. "I told you that it's a symbol, right? Of unity between humans and demons, and the demons got upset when it disappeared and killed lotsa people. Well, the Shikon also grants **power** to demons. They sense the Jewel's power, and come after it. Or at least the really stupid ones do."

"What's stupid about that?" As if drawn to it, Kagome pulled out the pouch Inuyasha had given her just a few minutes ago and pulled out the bright pink sphere.

"There's something…. I dunno, there's just something **wrong** with it. And if all the demons went after it, then we wouldn't have gotten half as far as we have. Kappas aren't particularly powerful. How do you think one held onto it as long as he did? I swear, there's something wrong with that thing." He shook his head vehemently. "I don't know what it is, but I'm sure that something's not right."

Kagome's expression changed from curious to alarmed in an instant. "You mean it's radioactive or something? Should I get rid of it?"

Shippo snorted. "I lived in the Embassy for over twenty human years, and I **know** that Inuyasha's not right. Everyone at the Embassy would love to see the Jewel returned. Everyone wants it."

It was Inuyasha's turn to snort. "No, don't ask me." He shook his head at the other two's inquiring looks. "I'll just say this; that jewel is corrupt. And it's no wonder, after all the-" he broke off again. "Never mind."

Kagome thought that she would scream. "I'm so sick of all this secrecy," she told Shippo flatly.

The kitsune nodded in agreement. "Me too. I was at the Embassy when Inuyasha left, and I still have no idea what happened! The whole thing's one big secret."

"And it's gonna stay that way," Inuyasha called from up ahead.

(\ /)

(0.0)

( )

After a few more days traveling through the Border, Kagome was inclined to agree with Shippo in regards to the Shikon no Tama. They encountered several demons, enough so that the schoolgirl was starting to get acclimated to the gore and blood that always accompanied these encounters. It took a bit longer to get used to the sight of Inuyasha with his hands coated in the red liquid and clothing splattered with it.

In comparison the Kagome's first week in the Border, the days spent hauling around the large yellow backpack were definitely worth it. Kagome was surprised to find that Inuyasha didn't have a sleeping bag or clothing in his own pack.

"So what's **in** it, then?" Curiously, she poked dubiously at the large grey pack.

"Well, there's your tent, stuff for cooking –yes, that includes pots and pans, matches and some other stuff." He shrugged and unzipped one of the larger pockets. "Here." He handed her a small iron cooking pot.

"That's gotta be a lot of 'other stuff'," Kagome concluded, setting the pot down. "I mean, your bag's twice as heavy as mine!" She glanced at the yellow bag. "Hey, are we stopping here for the night?"

Inuyasha snorted. "No. We're going to keep going in the dark while demons come at us from all sides." He pulled the tent out of his backpack. "I don't know why Tanaka gave us all this stuff," he grumbled. "Don't need matches, I can catch food, we can find shelter…" The hanyou shook his head irritably.

"Tanaka wasn't kidding when she said that she preparing for everything." Shippo flopped down on the damp ground and stared up at the shifting leaves as they fluttered and danced in the wind. Little patches of dark blue sky and white clouds shone through the ever-shifting pattern.

With an exhausted sigh, Kagome sat down next to the kitsune. Brown eyes turned skyward. "Pretty, isn't it?" She yawned. It was funny, but somehow, despite all the work and unpleasantness of being out in the wilderness, there was something so **right** about it. People, she decided, weren't supposed to be cooped up in little buildings all their lives. From what she knew, it seemed to drive them insane.

"Dammit!"

With a resigned sigh, Kagome turned her gaze from the sky to Inuyasha. He seemed to be having trouble with the tent.

"Here." The hanyou tossed the stuff to Kagome, eyes narrowed in irritation. "You do it. **I'm** not the one who's gonna be sleeping in it."

"I told you that I don't know how already. I've never been camping before." She picked up one of the poles, bemused.

"It can't be that hard. Just put it together!" Inuyasha stood up and walked away.

"If it's not that hard, why don't **you** do it?" Kagome looked up. "Hey! Where are you going?"

"Getting food!" He hollered back.

"Great," the schoolgirl grumbled as she puzzled over the tent.

Shippo sat up and watched as Kagome twisted the material over on itself. "Can I try?" he offered.

"Be my guest." She shoved the heap towards the kitsune.

(\ /)

(0.0)

( )

"Miroku!" The brown-haired, brown-eyed young woman glared impatiently at her companion. Sango sighed and shook her head. "You didn't hear a word I said, did you?"

"Of course I did!" the purple-eyed man said defensively as he shuffled one of the numerous stacks of paper on his messy desk.

"Then what did I say?" Sango demanded, hands on hips.

"You were just telling me that the people working in records are incompetent bunglers who should be flipping burgers rather than working in the Embassy," he said smoothly.

"Exactly." The brown haired woman looked surprised as she continued. "And now I'm stuck filing the work that those slackers should've done weeks ago! And in addition, I've got that attacks statistic report to finish editing –eight pages, did you know? And there's– quit staring at my chest!"

"Hm?" Miroku quickly busied himself with his work.

"Oh, forget it." Sango stomped off, a feat not too easy to accomplish in a crowded corridor.

Miroku shook his head ruefully, a small smile playing on his lips as he pulled a magazine out from underneath his half-finished report. "Fifteen down. Theme song." He frowned. "Theme song for what? A television show? A movie?" He tapped his pen on the magazine. "Anthem!" He scribbled the answer into the crossword.

"Working hard as ever, I see." Sango was back, and in a better mood. "Here're those reports." She dumped a large stack of papers on his desk. "Your department, you file 'em."

She sighed heavily as she walked down the hallway. Office work, she decided long ago, was not for her. "How did I get stuck in this?" she grumbled.

"Hello, Hatashi-kun!" a co-worker greeted, black eyes twinkling with good humor. Someone from the Records Department, Sango noticed. "Busy day?"

"Yup." She glanced at her wristwatch. "And I've got a meeting at five tonight, too."

"Sounds fun." The Records Department employee- she **still** couldn't remember his name- grinned and sauntered down the hallway, whistling.

"Well, **someone's** certainly in a good mood." Sango turned the corner and entered her own cubicle, a small cramped space filled with reports and paperwork.

She sighed as she stood in the entrance. "I hate this job…"

A small cat mewed at her from the desk. Sango stiffened for a moment, then relaxed and sat down at her desk.

"I don't know **why** I ever got involved, to be honest," she admitted to the little demon she'd been assigned to familiarize herself with. If only all demons were like Kirara; small and quiet and kind.

At first, Sango had distanced herself from the firecat. And who wouldn't with the events of fifty years past looming over their heads, as well as the amount of paranoia and propaganda flooding the media? But as time went by, she began to get used to the little demon's company, and ended up finding herself comforted by her companionship. And from the way Kirara followed her home at night, it seemed she felt the same way.

Kirara placed one tiny paw on a large stack of paperwork, crimson eyes focused on Sango. An obvious reminder of how much work she had to finish.

Sango smiled bitterly and fished a pen from a box on her desk.

Distantly, her ears registered the soft chime of the elevator. "…and the third floor is dedicated to paperwork, essentially." Another tour. They seemed to be happening more and more often these days. "The Embassy keeps records, files and reports here. The central library is located to the far right."

Someone in the tour shrieked. Sango dropped her pen in surprise, muttering unhappily under her breath as she groped for it beneath her desk. Kirara jumped from the desk and retrieved it for her.

"No need to worry. Every person in the Embassy has a demon co-worker who they work with, to improve human and demon relations. Practice what you preach, yes?" There was a faint chuckle in reply. "And I must say, it works very well. We pick demons to go with humans according to a personality test that we have all personnel –including demons- take."

"Sorry to have worried you, miss." It was Hachiemon, Miroku's assigned demon companion. It seemed to Sango that this test worked very well; Miroku and Hachi certainly got on well.

"Not at all." The woman's voice wavered slightly as she spoke, and the tour continued on, the guide still babbling about qualifications and tests.

"It's a good thing they didn't run into Tsubaki's friend," Sango told Kirara. "I think that snake has fun intimidating humans." Certainly Tsubaki herself did.

Kirara nodded stiffly, a habit that she'd recently picked up from her time with Sango, and nosed the brown-haired woman's watch.

Obediently, she looked down at the device. "What? Four-thirty already?" Frantically, Sango dug through a pile of paper. "Ah! Where's that report? I know I put it here…!" With a sigh of relief, she fished out a large packet. "Thanks Kirara!"

And with that, Sango hurried down the hallway.

(\ /)

(•. •)

( )

"Oh, wow!" Kagome exclaimed breathlessly as she leaned precariously over the edge of an old observation platform. "I wish I had a camera!"

"Careful!" Inuyasha grabbed her by the back of her shirt and hauled her away from the edge. "The railing is ancient and it'll give way easily if you keep leaning on it like that, idiot!"

"But look at that!" Kagome gestured vaguely at the stunning view below them. "How can I **not** stare?" Intensely green hills rolled off into the distance, disappearing into fog near the ground. Towering trees that covered every inch of the next few miles gleamed in the orange glow of the setting sun, and the clouds were pale pink fading into purple.

"Well, stare from a distance," the hanyou retorted grumpily. "And hurry up, too. We're still at least two weeks away from the demon capitol, and if you keep stopping and gawking like a stupid **tourist** at everything, I can guarantee that it'll be a lot longer."

"Give it a break, Inuyasha." Shippo rolled his bright green eyes at him. "It's not like that capitol's going to run away."

"But you might if I told you what we'll hafta go through to get there," he retorted. "I can't believe that Tanaka stuck me with this…"

"Stuck you with us?" Kagome asked, her eyes now on the hanyou rather than the view. "I don't get it. If you really hated us, then wouldn't you've abandoned us by now? You keep complaining about how you've been forced into this. No one's making you stay now." Her voice was calm rather than angry, as Inuyasha had suspected it would be.

"Well, if I left, then you'd probably just follow me around, wouldn't you?" he said, arms crossed as a brisk breeze tugged on hair and clothing alike.

"You know what I mean." Kagome's voice rose in volume, insistent.

"You'd probably end up getting yourself killed by doing something incredibly stupid, and I don't want that on my conscience. It'd bug me. Happy?" White ears twitched with irritation.

Kagome shrugged.

"Then let's go." He shouldered the large grey backpack and returned to the path.

"Hey Inuyasha, what's between the us and the capitol that you're so worried about, anyway?" Shippo leapt onto the hanyou's shoulder.

"Lots of mountains, and things in the mountains, and then the guards of the city themselves, which only let you go in if you can fight past them. And then some."

"Whaddaya mean, 'and then some'?" Shippo demanded. "Are you trying to scare me?"

Inuyasha brought his fist down on Shippo's head. "No, but since I'm with you two, we'll hafta take a different path. There's probably gonna be some unforeseen difficulties."

"Um…" Kagome pointed ahead. "Does he count as an 'unforeseen difficulty'?"

"What?" Inuyasha looked up sharply. Amber eyes widened in alarm, and then narrowed in anger. "Well, if it isn't Sesshoumaru. What the hell are you doing here?"

The white-haired demon looked back coolly. "I could ask you the same thing. And in such strange company, too." His eyes flickered over Kagome and Shippo in turn.

Inuyasha dropped his backpack. "Kagome, get out of the way. You too, Shippo."

A small smile curled the corners of Sesshoumaru's mouth. "How flattering. However, I am in a hurry. I have to time to waste on filth such as you. Get out of the way, hanyou."

"You're one to talk, brother," Inuyasha spat back. "And I'm not going anywhere."

"'Brother'?" Shippo whispered to Kagome. "They're **related**?"

Kagome's eyes went between the two. "They do look kinda similar," she admitted. "White hair, gold eyes, claws… but no ears on that one." She pointed at Sesshoumaru.

"And he's full demon, too," Shippo added. "I can smell it. Whoa!"

Kagome's finger wobbled as she pointed to where Sesshoumaru had been standing mere seconds before. "H-he disappeared!"

"Bastard!" Inuyasha shouted after him, wiping blood from his lip. "Running away?"

"And he's back!" the schoolgirl exclaimed.

"No." Sesshoumaru's fist swung forward and hit the hanyou hard in the stomach. "I have nothing to fear from one as weak as you, hanyou."

"And gone again!" Kagome staggered back as a great gust of wind blew her to the side. "He's fast!" She turned to Inuyasha with alarm. "Are you alright?" She reached out to help him stand, but he pulled away and stood up.

"I'm fine." He wiped his mouth on his sleeve. "Next time, he's dead."

(\ /)

(0.0)

( )

AN: SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG!

And I know that the meeting with Sesshoumaru seemed pretty half-hearted, but it's tie in someday soon…. I hope.

Questions, comments, complaints, ect all welcome.

Until next time!

Thanks for reading!

Oh… And before I forget…

MY COMPUTER IS GETTING A CHECK-UP AS OF AUGUST 26TH. I DO NOT KNOW WHEN I'LL GET IT BACK.

It depends on what's wrong with it; it takes forever for it to start up, and the screen does strange things.

…In other words, don't expect me to update too quickly; school, soccer, piano, reffing, and NO COMPUTER FOR AN UNKNOWN AMOUNT OF TIME!

I think I'm gonna die.


	5. Nightly Warfare

**AN: **First of all, I'm VERY VERY VERY SORRY ABOUT HOW LONG YOU'VE BEEN WAITING! It couldn't be helped… much. Well, in any case, I SWEAR it won't take me four or more months to update again, unless I have a REALLY good excuse.

But there's good news: I FINALLY got the ending the way I want it. It's very pretty and stuffoo. And set it stone, which is even BETTER.

And happy belated Thanksgiving, all!

Responses:

**Lake of Fire**: Haha! He probably **would** win, if anyone could get him to participate in the Kentucky Derby… he'd probably find it insulting if someone asked him, though. (I can just imagine… cackle)

**SilverontheRose**: Well, I do try to keep it interesting… Thank you! I'm glad that you like my writing so much! (It's very ego-inflating!)

**Moonlit Showers aka InuKag Fan**: Thank you! I have high hopes for this story, with lots of plot twists (!) and perhaps even a MORAL! Whoo! (Sorry. I'm a bit hyped about it right now, what with finally finding my story thread.)

**Inuyasha's hun**: Well I for one know that in Mrs. Higurashi's place, I would already **be** dead from stress. No worries; Kagome'll get home… (or WILL she?)

**inuyasha-lovers**: Yay! (I was hoping that no one else had done a story in this thread, or anything pretty similar.) Thank you!

**white angel of hell**: Heh… the computer problem turned out to be somewhat my own stupidity; I had the wrong start-up selected in "Preferences". XD I shoulda noticed that… Yay, I remembered to use spell check last chapter! (Otherwise, it'd pro'ly be pretty bad…)

**Superstitious**: I survived, too! (By stealing by brother's and my Dad's computers at different times, except I have a Mac and they have PC's, and it's been confusing). But now that I've got it back, I'm very happy.

**Tevrah**: Thank you! Sorry about the long wait; it's been a bit of a drag lately. Sess/Rin fan? Well, I definitely think that there's a deep affection between them –adoration, on Rin's part, and a sort of fierce protectiveness on Sesshoumaru's- but in the romantic sense, I can't honestly say that I can see that happening (How old is Rin, anyway? Like 10 or so?). But who knows? (I'm speaking strictly from the manga/anime sense. I'm sure that there are good stories out there with this pairing, though. You can pair pretty much anyone with anyone if you go about it the right way… like the author Thunk. She did this GREAT Kagura/ Kouga story, which was totally believable.)

**Braindead**: whups! Thanks for pointing that out, and I'll keep it in mind next time.

Disclaimer: Consider Inuyasha, Kagome, Shippo, Miroku, Sango et al disclaimed!

x

Unattainable

x

Chapter Five: Nightly Warfare

x

"_All that is needed for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing_."

x

"So…" Kagome paused, searching for words. "That was your brother."

"I already said that," Inuyasha grumbled, gingerly touching his nose where Sesshoumaru had hit him. "And he's a bastard."

"Must run in the family," piped Shippo.

"Can't you give that crap a rest for a second, brat?" the hanyou demanded wearily as he shouldered his pack again and took off. He paused. "I wonder what the big hurry was for, though…"

"Huh?" Kagome looked at him curiously.

Inuyasha shook his head. "Nevermind."

The schoolgirl's eyebrows snapped together almost audibly as she stopped dead in the center of the path. "That's it!"

Inuyasha turned wearily. "What is it **now**?"

She marched up to him, hands on hips with a heavy scowl on her face. "I am so sick of your secrecy! Every time I ask you something, the answer's always 'Nevermind'." She made a face. "If you don't tell me right now what's going on, I'll… I'll…"

"What?" the hanyou sneered.

"I'll throw this stupid Jewel over the cliff!" She ripped the bag away from her neck and stomped to the edge of the trail. "I **will** do it, you know!"

"Don't do that, stupid!" he howled, roughly yanking her away from the edge of the cliff and towards him. "You don't have a damned idea of what that'd do, you idiot!"

"Well, why don'tcha **tell** me!" Kagome backed away, feeling too close for comfort. In a more reasonable tone, she said, "I have a right to know. I mean, what if hired killers were after you or something and I didn't know, and all of a sudden they caught up and-"

Inuyasha laughed bitterly.

"It's not funny!" she protested. "I know it sounds stupid, but if-"

He cut her off again. "You're wrong. It's funny. It's funny that you guessed right without having any idea what you're talking about."

Kagome stared. "I hope you're joking."

(\ /)

(•. •)

( )

They were staring at her again.

It was the same four men who watched her leave work every single day. Just as they usually did, they leered at her, or muttered dark threats under their breath. But this day was different.

Today, some others stepped out of the shadows of a nearby alley. Today, they opened their jackets, squashed their cigarettes under their shoes, and pulled out clubs or small bats. Today, it was after dark.

Sango sighed.She'd had a bad day at the office. A woman had somehow managed to find the Embassy's number and she had more than a few complaints to make about demons, and more than a few insults for Sango. Not to mention Miroku's "new friend" the personnel manager, who'd managed to get him an office right next door to her own. "On any other day…" she muttered. A bad day just got worse.

"What's that?" one of them jeered. "Scared? Don' worry, we'll make it really quick. Can' promise that it won' hurt none, though."

"Most of 'em scream," another acknowledged.

Causally, she set down her purse and pulled out a large tube of lipstick as the mob circled her, some of them licking their lips in anticipation. Sango tugged on the ends of the steel –actually, titanium- tube, and she held short staff, equipped with a small sharp blade on one end, in her hand.

Embassy workers didn't last as long as Sango without a reason.

When Sango got home, she found three messages on her answering machine. They were all from Miroku.

"Sango? I need some help with this customs report… Hachi gave me all the wrong information. Call me back, soon…"

The machine beeped before relaying the next message.

"Sango? Please call me back. I really, **really** need help with this customs report. I've been looking through the statistics again, and if Hachi gave me the **right** information… well, it doesn't look good."

Another beep from the message machine.

"Okay, it's not funny anymore. If you're home, call me back. It's seven fifteen, and I know you get out of work at six-ish… I think…" There was a long pause. "So now I'm starting to wonder if you're okay. I'm starting to wor-" a hand reached out and pressed the stop button.

Purple eyes looked into brown. "Work late?" Miroku asked casually.

Sango nodded cracked her knuckles. "Long day." She sat down at her kitchen table. "I need some coffee."

Wordlessly, Miroku moved about the kitchen with bold familiarity, grabbing coffee grounds, two mugs, and setting on her coffee maker.

"Come here often?" Sango asked, one eyebrow arched skeptically.

"Often enough," he replied, pulled out a chair and sitting across from her.

"Speaking of which, how did you get in?" Sango ventured curiously. "I could've sworn that I kept everything locked…"

"I'm good at that sort of thing." Miroku stared at the table as silence stretched between them.

"You know, you shouldn't worry," she finally said. "I can take care of myself better than you can, even if I do hate beating people up."

Miroku grinned and tapped a stack of papers that she hadn't noticed before. "And now I'll be able to get these done."

Sango glowered at him, feeling unaccountably disappointed. "You said there was something odd about the stuff Hachi gave you?" she asked.

"Yeah." He handed over the stack of paper. "You might notice that there are some odd patterns… The mob deaths have taken a sudden spike. That, or people have suddenly been going out more at night."

Sango shuffled the papers and checked another statistic. "But this survey… No, the mobs have definitely been active." She glanced back at the first sheet. "An increase of… roughly 2 in the last two and a half months." She looked up, brown eyes sharp.

"After a steady rise of about 1.47 each **year**?" Miroku queried. "There's definitely something going on."

Sango reached for the phone. "I'm calling the Director."

Miroku's eyes widened. "Are you sure that's a good idea? They could be tracing the lines…"

"We've been told to call at anything suspicious." She tapped the paper. "False reports are suspicious. Are they trying to drive up paranoia?"

"What if they're not fake?" Miroku asked mildly. "Weren't you attacked again just tonight?"

"I don't count, you know that," she snorted in reply. "Everyone from the Embassy gets attacked. Maybe Hachi falsified it; he's tried to get out of work before. But what if he's doing it deliberately…?"

"Hachi's not someone who'd do that," Miroku interjected quickly, purple eyes thoughtful. "His loyalties definitely lie with the Embassy."

"You seem to have gotten pretty attached to your partner," Sango observed casually.

"I'm simply making an observation," he retorted.

"Well then. What if it's the Embassy…?"

Miroku sighed. "Sango, I'll figure it out, okay? You do your job, I'll do mine."

(\ /)

(0.0)

( )

Kagome took a deep breath, almost wishing that she'd never asked. "So, why are these… hired killers chasing you?"

For a moment, that familiar expression of refusal crossed Inuyasha's face. Then, it melted away to be replaced by a somber look. "I got on the bad side of the human government. The Embassy doesn't like me too much, either. Apparently, I destroyed forty years of hard work." He looked away. "I might even be the reason why everything's so bad right now."

Kagome's jaw dropped. "You're not kidding. How?"

The hanyou laughed bitterly. "I wish I was." He paused again, wondering how to go on. "I'll tell you this; I used to be a member of the Embassy. But some negotiations took place, both sides made some concessions, and I didn't think that those concessions were right. So I tried to do something about it, only… Well, it didn't work and Tanaka had to drag me out of there."

Kagome opened her mouth to ask him what he'd tried to do, but then realized that she wasn't going to get anything else out of him and shut it again. "But… hired killers?" she finally ventured.

"Yup." He grinned slightly. "They thought I was trying to kill the human ambassador. But I wasn't," he quickly added. " and I probably should've."

Shippo suddenly stiffened and jumped dramatically to his feet green eyes wide. "I know who you are! I was looking through Papa's papers… You were mentioned! You're the reason why the Treaty didn't go over!"

"And a damned good thing it didn't, either!" the hanyou snapped back. "Do you have any idea what was in that treaty?"

"I know that if that Treaty was signed, people wouldn't get killed so much on the human side!" Shippo hollered, small hands balled into fists.

Inuyasha fell silent for a moment. "Are you blaming me for your parents' death?" he asked quietly.

Kagome shot Shippo a warning glance, but the kitsune was beyond reason. "Maybe I do! I don't know! But they're both dead now, and it's **someone's** fault!" His chin jutted stubbornly as he wiped his eyes. "And if there was a treaty, they wouldn't have died

Inuyasha let the silence stretch between them. Finally, he turned away and said gruffly, "Fine. Leave if you want. It's your choice."

Kagome sighed. _I have no idea what to say…_

She tried to smile at Shippo. "I'm sure that Inuyasha didn't want anyone to be killed." She glanced at the hanyou. "Right?"

"You wouldn't last five minutes out here without me," Inuyasha stated, completely ignoring her question. "So Shippo, if you don't wanna die, you better stick with me."

"C'mon, Shippo." Kagome held out her hand. "We've got a long way to go."

Slowly, the kitsune nodded and took her hand in his small one.

(\ /)

(•. •)

( )

Mrs. Higurashi was surprised.

Before Kagome's death, she'd kept her head down like everyone, never venturing out after dark and keeping to herself. She didn't talk to her neighbors about anything even mildly suspicious- she said hello every now and then, and would remark on the weather, and she kept her doors locked at night, curtains drawn against the danger that lurked just beyond.

It was a pity that it'd taken the death of her daughter to realize that she couldn't just sit there and let people get murdered on her doorstep every night. Saving people's lives was her own way of repenting the deaths that had come before.

No one really knew how many people had been killed by the mobs, but the numbers were certainly in the thousands. Before, she'd done her best not to think about it and just tried to live her life. But Kagome's death had struck her; she found herself wondering just how many people perished every night.

Five?

Ten?

Fifty?

And when she really thought about it, it was impossible to just sit there and do nothing. It was so simple; open the door, let in the victim, and close it. Just that small act.

That's all it had really meant to her; she had no intention of starting a revolution.

They called themselves "The Defense Committee Against Random Acts of Violence and Terrorism Committed Against Innocent Citizens", but everyone who dared to talk about it called it "The Defense".

Someone brave had made thousands of leaflets and had strewn about the streets of four cities during the night. The next morning, people found them littering the streets and picked them up curiously. Mrs. Higurashi watched their reactions carefully. Some looked horrified, as if they'd found something dangerous or embarrassing and they didn't know what to do with it. It reminded her of the time that she'd seen a young man find a condom on the ground, and not knowing what it was, picking it up curiously. As soon as he realized what he was holding, he hastily dropped it in embarrassment and hurried away.

But these people didn't want to drop it; this small slip of paper could change their lives for the better. Most of them casually pocketed it and hoped that no one noticed.

But not only had they put out papers; Mrs. Higurashi had heard some quiet rumors that a mob had been sprayed down with ammonia from the rooftops of a few houses.

It seemed that "The Defense" had declared war.

(\ /)

(0.0)

( )

Inuyasha hadn't spoken much since he'd briefly explained his situation to Kagome and Shippo five days before. Kagome thought that five days was a bit too long to sulk, and when she told him so, he replied sourly, "What makes you think I'm sulking? Maybe I just don't wanna talk to you."

Somehow that comment stung more than she cared to admit. "Fine," Kagome retorted, stomping off ahead. "I won't intrude upon your presence any longer, your **highness**."

"Kagome-" Inuyasha interjected.

"I thought you didn't wanna talk to me. Changed your mind?" Kagome remarked, nose in the air.

"**Kagome**-"

"Oh, don't let **my** feelings stop you from being a complete and utter jerk. You never cared before!"

"Look **out**!"

The hanyou dropped his pack and took of running, reaching the oblivious schoolgirl seconds before the demon that lumbered out of the deeper part of the forest. "Idiot girl!" he muttered under his breath as he dropped her off and turned to face the beast, placing himself between himself and her.

"Get outta here, you big lumbering idiot!" Inuyasha yelled at the clumsy creature. "Something as big and stupid as you isn't going to get the Shikon!"

But the demon kept moving forward slowly, like a moth drawn to a light, and wordless moan issuing from its large maw.

"I'm not gonna tell you again!" the hanyou yelled one last time. "Go away!"

"If it wants the Jewel, why isn't it attacking?" Kagome whispered. Something wasn't right, or was it just her? As the demon took another slow step forward, she decided that there was definitely something wrong. "Inuyasha, I don't think it wants to hurt us. Maybe… maybe it's trying to communicate!"

"It's **trying** to get the Jewel!" Inuyasha retorted.

"But it's not attacking us or anything!" Shippo observed from behind Kagome, eyes wide as he observed the leviathan.

"I know that! I have eyes, too!" He paused, watching the demon as it extended its head forward, poking its great blunt nose in their direction and grunting. "We're leaving," he finally said.

"Running away?" Shippo taunted.

"No; we're continuing our journey." He grabbed his pack and shouldered it. "We still have miles to go."

(\ /)

(•. •)

( )

It was a different Miroku that met Sango in her office the next day. His purple eyes held no hint of humor and his mouth was set in a grim line.

As soon as she sat down at her desk and started organizing papers on her desk, he said, "Hachi wasn't making up the figures." He allowed himself a small smile. "Like I said."

"You double checked?"

"What do you take me for, Sango?" Miroku asked, an injured expression on his face. He held out a small stack of paper.

Standing up to reach it, she felt his hand casually brush her waist…

Passing by Sango's door, Hachi barely managed to dodge Miroku as he was flung out of the room, the door slamming behind him.

The relatively demon chuckled and patted his bruised and rueful partner on the head. "Nice try, Miroku! Better luck next time!" He grinned and continued down the hallway.

Miroku slowly stood up rubbing his neck and wincing as he limped down the hallway and turned into his office.

Meanwhile, Sango was looking over the report that he'd gathered as she took deep breaths and calmed down. The reports were stunning. Mob killings had spiked.

"What the hell is going on…?" she murmured, flipping through the various charts and graphs. Kirara stepped into the office and leapt onto an empty space on the cluttered desk, blood red eyes peering at the report.

Sango lay the papers in front of the demon cat and stood up, pacing her office worriedly as her mind raced. The reports could be wrong; as the government refused to believe that the Mobs existed, no one could really get an accurate report. All the Embassy really did was count the number of people missing with bodies undiscovered, murders unsolved. No one really knew what happened to the bodies; Sango didn't want to know.

Perhaps there was a serial murder prowling about, killing large numbers of people and hiding the bodies somewhere. Or maybe a bus went of a cliff, or someone simply miscalculated.

She hoped someone miscalculated.

(\ /)

(0.0)

( )

Kagome managed to keep the whimper from her voice as she tapped Inuyasha on the shoulder. "It's still following us…!"

The hanyou shot an irritable glance in her direction and said squarely, "I know."

"I wish it'd go away," Shippo muttered, casting nervous sidelong glances in the demon's direction. "It's making me nervous."

"Neurotic, more like," Inuyasha remarked. "You haven't stopped twitching since it arrived four days ago."

The subject of their conversation, meanwhile, continued to lumber after them docilely, like some sort of pet. The ground shook regularly as it followed them, tree branches trembling and birds taking off into startled flight, twittering.

As far as the three could tell, it didn't have any hostile intentions; it hadn't even expressed interest in the Shikon no Tama hung around Kagome's neck. It just kept following them.

"Hey!" Shippo whispered in Kagome's ear. "That thing doesn't look very fast… why don't we try outrunning it?"

Kagome nodded enthusiastically, then tugged on Inuyasha's sleeve. "Can we?" she asked, knowing he heard every work.

For a moment, the schoolgirl thought that his pride would get in the way; Inuyasha wasn't someone who'd enjoy running away. But then he sighed in defeat and replied grudgingly, "Fine. Keep walking."

Wonderingly, Kagome kept going.

Inuyasha took a deep breath. "Start running on three. One, two, three."

Obediently, she took off, the heavy backpack bouncing on her back. Inuyasha easily caught up from behind and grabbed the pack and took off through the underbrush, completely ignoring the path.

Half an hour later, the hanyou had found the path again, where he dropped Kagome and Shippo, huffing. Wearily, he sat down hard on the ground, ears twitching. "We lost him."

"Yay! Now I can actually **sleep** again! Good job, dog-boy!" Shippo cheered, speaking well of the hanyou for the first time since the incident with Inuyasha and his parents.

"Don't mention it." Completely exhausted, the hanyou flopped back on the ground and promptly went to sleep.

(\ /)

(•. •)

( )

Mr. Higurashi could only pity his grandson; Souta had first his father taken away, then his sister, and he no longer lived with his mother. For someone so young, he was handling it well.

He smiled slightly as he watched the young boy play catch with his friend Satoru, who'd also lost his sister and father. The senior assumed that Satoru was helping Souta through it. He sighed and returned to the letter that his daughter sent him:

_Dear Father_,

_I hope that you and Souta are doing well_. _I'm fine; as far as I know, "they" don't know what I'm doing_. _It's lonely here without the two of you, but I realize that this is something that someone should've started doing a long time ago_.

_Everyone wants a change here; have you seen the newsletters that have been floating around_? _Just yesterday, I heard footsteps on the roof_. _It seems that "The Defense" has taken to the rooftops like the mobs have taken the streets_. _They have been getting quite harassed lately_. _Continuing, the people on the roof were throwing garbage and tin cans at the people below_. _I'm afraid that things will get even more violent; the people in the mob were quite upset. _

_I'll be happy when all of this ends and you can come home. Speaking of home, I hope that this letter finds you all well. If you need anything, feel free to ask. I'm making cookies and I'll send some to you with my next letter. _

_Tell Souta that I love him and I miss you both. _

"Revolutions are always bloody," murmured the senior under his breath as he recalled tidbits of history. "Good luck, Umeko. Don't get killed." His weathered hands gripped the paper tightly.

With a sigh, he carefully folded the letter and stored it with the others that he'd received.

They were living in an old temple now that Mr. Higurashi inherited. It was an old property that he'd simply never bothered to sell. It was also the perfect hiding place for old relics, and discoveries of such priceless artifacts was becoming an everyday occurrence, one that he looked forward to.

No one bothered them here, not even the mobs. It was temple ground, sacred ground, for one, and it had fallen into such disrepair that no one would **want** to trespass. Mr. Higurashi liked to think of it as a sign of good luck.

If only he could take that luck, bundle it in a box and send it to his daughter.

(•.•)

--( • )--

Kagome felt as if she'd been wandering around in the woods for decades.

"I don't think I can go another day without a shower," she complained, glancing mournfully at her grubby hands as they trudged up a steep hill.

"That's what you said yesterday," Shippo noticed. "And the day before, and probably the day before that."

"But it's so… **gross**!" the schoolgirl lamented. "Just ten minutes in warm water- that's all I ask!"

Inuyasha rolled his eyes skyward. "Well, **I** don't think I can go another day with your whining. Do you ever shut up?"

"I'll shut up when I get my bath."

"I take that as a 'no'."

Kagome was in the process of thinking of a clever reply when she saw it. "Inuyasha…"

It came out as a strangled croak.

The hanyou turned, scowling. "What?"

Kagome lifted a trembling hand and pointed ahead, her bottom lip trembling as if she was about to cry.

Shippo let out a small wail.

Slowly, expecting the worst, Inuyasha turned. He stared. For a moment, he thought that he was going to go crazy.

"WILL YOU JUST **FUCK OFF**!"

That big demon was back, this time with a big stupid smile on it's face.

(\ /)

(•. •)

( )

Somewhere in the darkness of the abandoned building, a child was whimpering.

"I suggest that you let her go," an icy voice as harsh as steel commanded.

"Sesshoumaru-sama?" the girl's voice called out. "Sesshoumaru-sama! Let me go! I said, let me go, meanie! Sesshoumaru-sama! I'm coming!"

"Rin, quiet," Sesshoumaru said, cold amber eyes staring into the darkness. "You've become quite arrogant lately, Naraku. It's time that someone got rid of you." And without warning, he rushed forward.

Naraku hissed in pain and retreated deeper into the shadows. "Damn dog!"

Sesshoumaru disdainfully wiped the blood off his hands and regarded the dark corner scornfully as a dirty human child ran out of the darkness, relief and happiness shining in her eyes.

"Sesshoumaru-sama! I knew you'd come!" She flung out her arms to hug him around the knees- she was still quite small. Then dog demon glanced at her, and she stopped and lowered her arms, content just to grin at him.

"Naraku. The Council is… displeased with your actions of late." Amber eyes narrowed dangerously. "As am I."

"Are you saying that they've given you the task of executing me? How demeaning for such a high-ranked noble such as yourself." He chuckled. "Then again, I imagine that they've taken the 'mysterious disappearance' of their other assassins as a hint. You're probably the strongest one they could send."

"What did you do to the others?" Rin demanded, bold with Sesshoumaru by her side.

The other demon chuckled. "I used them. One of them- a fire elemental- turned out to be quite useful. His horns will make me millions."

"I have no authorization from the Council," Sesshoumaru stated, moving forward again in a blur. Naraku barely dodged. "I have no need of such things."

There was a hiss as acid hit flesh.

"It's been fun," Naraku choked out from the darkness, grimacing in pain. "But I really must get going." With a small pop and a puff of smoke, the demon was gone.

"Sesshoumaru-sama?" Rin asked. "Where did he go?"

"He ran away," replied the other with disgust. "Come, Rin." He walked to the exit.

"Coming!" The human child scrambled behind him. "Wait for me, Sesshoumaru-sama!"

(\ /)

(•. •)

( )

Kagura sneered in open disgust at her "master". She loved to see him fail like this; he'd taken on more than he could handle when he stole Sesshoumaru's human partner, Rin. It was a pity that the dog demon hadn't finished the miserable wretch off. It was a pity that he hadn't freed her.

"Kagura. Go find something useful to do."

The wind demon bowed mockingly and left the room, her crimson lips pursed with dislike. She slammed the shoji screen behind her and sighed, idly watching as the busy, oblivious human workers bustled about below. She had no intention of making herself useful, not for him. She hated being stuck in the upper apartments of this big, white sterile complex almost as much as she hated taking orders. It was almost suffocating.

Bored, she started to pick the white paint off of a section of the wall. There were similar patches where paint was missing all down the long hallway. The demon in charge of maintenance,

"Kagura…"

She flinched at turned. "Oh, it's only you, Kanna. What do you want?"

Black eyes like bottomless pits stared at her. With her white hair, pale skin and white clothes, she looked like a ghost. Kanna held up her mirror- a "gift" from their master. There was an image suspended in the middle.

Kagura's eyes widened in disbelief. "…What the hell…? Kanna, where…?" Someone was trying to break into one of the labs. The _experimental_ labs. "Shit."

Forgetting for the moment that she wasn't doing anything for Naraku unless he forced her to, Kagura took off running.

(\ /)

(0.0)

( )

They tried everything. Kagome asked it to "please leave" and then explained very politely that she was scared of it, Shippo tried to scare it away with foxfire illusions, and Inuyasha made very violent threats. Then he insulted it. Finally, as a last resort, he uprooted a sapling and tried to prod it away, cursing as he did so. It ended up eating the sapling, and Inuyasha barely let go fast enough.

Nothing worked.

"Well," Kagome ventured hopefully, as the big demon munched happily on the sapling, "now we know that it's a vegetarian."

"Like **that's** gonna help," Inuyasha snorted, arms folded stubbornly as he watched the goliath move onto the nearby trees. "We wasted a whole day trying to move this stupid thing!"

Dusk was falling now, painting what sky that they could see a deep rich blue like velvet. Stars gleamed through the dark in abundance, as if someone had dropped a handful of white sand across it.

They fumbled in the dark; Shippo setting up the fire while Kagome searched the big yellow bag for some of the few-remaining ramen. Inuyasha was sitting in a tree, keeping guard on the demon as it munched trees.

With a sigh, Kagome flopped back on her sleeping bag and stared up at the sky. "This is one thing I'll miss when we get back," she said, brown eyes stinging slightly. _Grandpa, Souta, Mom_...

Did they think she was dead?

"What'll you miss?" Shippo asked, joining her.

Kagome blinked hastily and pointed. "Look. There's so many stars. You can't see half as many in the city." She sighed.

"I'll miss camping out like this," the kitsune admitted. "Inuyasha's a jerk, but it's fun living like this. It's… cheerful." He frowned, trying to find the appropriate word. "Kinda carefree?"

"You know Shippo, I think you're right," she replied thoughtfully. "I may be dirty and gross and tired, but I'm _happy_." She grinned. "How weird is that?"

"No one's trying to kill me or anyone else, and I don't hafta worry about… all that." _Even my parents' death seems far away_... Shippo thought guiltily.

Kagome turned her eyes from the stars to the kitsune by her. "That's right. Because you were in the Embassy… I don't think I'd have the guts to work there," she admitted.

"Well, you better get used to the idea." Inuyasha was back, scowling. "If you wanna get back to your family."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kagome demanded. But she had a feeling she knew- she would miss the open atmosphere and this peaceful feeling that she had.

It must've shown on her face, because the hanyou turned away and leaped easily into the tree overhead. "It's your decision. I don't care if you stay or go."

_It doesn't sound like it_, Kagome thought. She frowned. _But why_?

(\ /)

(•. •)

( )

Vanity made Kagura slow from a desperate dash to a leisurely walk as she turned the corner and regarded the would-be thieves with distain. "I'm disappointed. I was expecting some worthy opponents, not a bunch of **wolf** demons."

They turned to glare at her. "You can't stop us, bitch! We know what Naraku's got in there!" Their leader licked his lips hungrily. "We'll be the most powerful clan in the Council!"

Kagura rolled her eyes. "You want limitless power to control the _Council_? How small-minded of you."

"You're one to talk," another growled. "You're just Naraku's lapdog! You can't lift a finger without his permission."

The disdainful expression on the wind user's face twisted into an ugly violent look. "Ryuja no mai!" she hissed.

None of them were spared.

(•.•)

--( • )--

AN: Hope you liked it!

Questions, comments, complaints, ect, the button's right there!

And thank you for reading, as usual.


	6. Second Nature

NEW and IMPROVED (But not a whole lot)! Thanks especially to NewSalemWitch for giving me a good page-worth of _very_ useful critique. Upon reading it and looking over the story, I realized that she was absolutely right. I felt kinda bad about it- and the fact that I was about two pages shorter than usual, so I came back and wrote more. Yay! (Sorry, it's not an actual update).

AN: Man… my computer went all weird on me –it's probably my fault- and it deleted what little bit of the story I had. I had to restart, so it took a bit longer that it should've. Sorry!

Well, I was going to stop this response thing, and move it to the little response button thing that FanFiction now offers, but then I realized that I'd have no other way to reply on MediaMiner and to anonymous viewers. So it's staying the same. Wow, that was a pretty pointless little story.

**MelonIce**: Thank you! And I'm really, _really_ sorry about the whole time dilemma on the last chapter- that was really rude of me. It won't happen again without good reason.

**quillscript**: Thank you! Glad ya like it.

**Animekitty07**: Thanks! Sorry about the long wait!

**Angel4life**: There will be fluff, no worries. Right now though, Inuyasha and Kagome have just started to get really comfortable with each other- despite the fact that they've been wandering around the forest for almost three weeks now- so get ready!

**Inuyasha's hun**: You're enthusiasm is overwhelming! Thank you very, very much!

**White Moon Universe Guard**: If the Shikon _does_ shatter- it could happen- the story won't revolve around gathering the shards as they scatter on the four winds. If it shatters, I imagine that it'll just be useless until it's whole again- Kagome or whoever has it at that time could drop a few pieces or whatnot, but they'll pretty much keep the whole thing. (By the way, you're the first person to ask that question. )

**Tevrah**: Thank you!

**Ookami Suriya**: Waah! I'm sorry! I was just looking at the date that you wrote your review (December 28) And suddenly realized that it's been like two months. I'm really, really sorry about that. But there's good news; the plot is figured out, so updates _should_ come more often.

**Inu Kaiba**: I'm really, really sorry about how long it's taking! As of now, the story should start to move a bit quicker, though. Again, very sorry! (And guilty)

Disclaimer- characters aren't mine. Fortunately for you.

x

Unattainable

Chapter Six: Second Nature

x

"Really, Kagura," Naraku reprimanded, black eyes cold and impassive as ever, "You made quite a mess in the lab. If you don't learn to control yourself, I'll have to punish you."

The wind witch opened her mouth to reply, but a sudden deep ache caused her to fall on her knees, the tatami mats growing blurry as her vision greyed. A deep, red-hot rage built up in her chest. She lifted her head to glare at her "master".

Naraku looked back coolly as he lifted his hand from the small black button in his palm.

If looks could kill, Naraku would definitely be dead.

(\ /)

(•. •)

( )

It happened a few months back, when Kagura had lived on the other side of the Border.

"Tokkaido Kagura, the Council has a request." The demon at the door held out a crisp white letter in his hand.

The wind witch turned away from the window and raised her eyebrows sarcastically. "They have a lot of those, don't they?" She sat up and took the note from him, tearing open the seal and pulling the impersonal white paper within.

A small smile curled on crimson lips. "Hm. So that hanyou's giving them trouble again." She looked up at the messenger. "You still here?"

Slit-pupiled eyes of dark greet stared at the ceiling as he yawned. "They want a reply now. Seems like they've got other stuff to worry 'bout. What's-is-face, the dog-demon, he's got some sort of problem with the Council. They want him to settle down, stop movin' around so much. Lotsa responsibility, you know?"

"Hmph." Kagura folded the letter and pursed her lips as she thought. She admired Sesshoumaru. He had guts, and he was as much a drifter as she was. Like the wind, only it was in her nature, not his. "I'll take it."

The messenger looked at her thoughtfully. "You sure? The other ones, they haven't come back, you know."

The wind witch shrugged. "Kanna was a kid. I don't know what she was doing in a job like this. And everyone knows that Royakan was losing it." Crimson eyes turned back to the window. It'd be nice to do something again, get her blood moving… This city choked her sometimes. The air was too still. "He's just a hanyou, right? How much trouble can he be?"

It was the other demon's turn to shrug. "You know, that's what the others said, too."

Kagura grinned. "I'm not like the others. This 'Naraku' won't be anything like those Thunder Brothers. And I got them both with just one slash." She fingered her fan.

Looking back, she knew that it was her blatant overconfidence that did her in. She was right, though; Naraku wasn't like any others. Instead of killing her and mailing her head back to the Council, he tied her down and did experiments with her blood and took one of her kidneys. Apparently he'd made quite a lot of money with it.

(\ /)

(0.0)

( )

"Ooh, look at that!" Kagome grinned enthusiastically, finger brandished towards a gap between two bushes. "It's a path! Let's go!"

Inuyasha looked at her quizzically. "If you really want a path so bad, just walk behind that idiot." He nodded towards the big beast. It was still following them. "And anyway, I don't think that's a path. There are none through here."

Shippo frowned. "But I remember a path! When we went through, it was practically a road! _And_, we were walking on a road. Why couldn't we just stay on that?"

"Use your brain, stupid," the hanyou retorted impatiently, shoving a bush aside. "There are _demons_ on the path, right?"

Shippo shrugged. "So? I'm a demon."

Inuyasha turned. "You really have no idea how bad things are between humans and demons, do you? Outside of the boundary, demons kill humans on sight. And hanyou, too. When they can." He cracked his knuckles grimly.

Kagome raised her eyebrows skeptically. "Do that many humans even go over the Border? And anyway, that sounds a bit… _extreme_, if you ask me. It's not like were at war or anything… are we?"

He shrugged carelessly. "Haven't they always been?" He hesitated as if he didn't know what to say. "… Someone once told me that they can't help it. Humans and demons are different by nature; nothing can change that. Their natures are battling each other."

"Well, I don't believe it," Kagome exclaimed. "After all, hanyou wouldn't exist if humans and demons couldn't get along, right?"

Inuyasha paused. "I hadn't thought of that," he admitted thoughtfully.

"Well," Shippo said airily, "Inuyasha's parents weren't exactly the norm, were they? I mean, to begin with, his father- ow! Hey, what was **that** for?" The kitsune rubbed his head gingerly. "You didn't hafta **hit** me!"

"Feh." The hanyou strode ahead, shoving vegetation out of his way as he went.

"What did I say…?" Shippo wondered. "It's not like I calling them names!"

"Maybe it's what _I_ said," Kagome murmured as she watched the red coat bob away in the distance. _He didn't look too happy after I said that hanyou wouldn't exist if humans and demons couldn't live together_.

They'd started to travel uphill, and instead of stumbling around bushes and getting scratched by twigs, Kagome found herself battling slippery, leaf-covered slopes and gargantuan roots, which were hard to see as in the steadily-decreasing light. Leviathan trees towered overhead, their branches fading away into dark shadows and their thick trunks wider than cars.

In awe, Kagome paused in front of one, brown eyes reaching for the uppermost branches. "Wow. I don't think I've ever seen a **building** this tall, let alone a tree. They kinda make me nervous," she admitted to Shippo.

The kitsune nodded fervently in agreement. "We're officially in demon country. I remember these forests. But nobody lives here," he hastily assured her. "Well, except the crazy ones and the ones they kick out of the city for breaking the rules."

"There's actually a city?" she wondered aloud, moving away from the tree and venturing forward again. "Well, of course there's a city, but what's it like?"

Shippo frowned as he thought. "Um… It's not at all like a human city. No one uses cars because no one needs them. And no one buys packaged food. Most demons like to catch their prey, or grow it themselves. But sometimes you'll pay to get food that someone else prepared. And nothings mass-produced. There's no factories or anything.

"But the rules are _really_ strict. There's the Council, which is made up of about one hundred and fifty demons- to get on, you hafta kill an existing member and have proof-"

"What?" Kagome demanded incredulously. "What kind of rule is that? That's not civilized!"

A white ear twitched and Inuyasha turned. "Of course it is," he said simply. "To beat a Council member, you hafta be strong, smart and ruthless. You hafta be bold and confidant, and you need to be able to think on your feet. It's the perfect test."

"…Well," Kagome replied grudgingly, "it's not very nice, though."

Inuyasha snorted and turned again. "They're demons. What did you expect? Seems to work for them, though."

Shippo nodded. "Demon territory isn't in half as much as trouble as the humans are in right now. My mom told me the human government is practically gone because no one can handle all the mobs and stuff. The people in power blame it all on demons and that just makes the mobs and paranoia worse. The only people who're trying to do anything are part of the Embassy, and that's where the demons are."

"A vicious circle," Kagome concluded.

"You have no idea," Inuyasha muttered cryptically.

Immediately, Kagome took advantage of the opportunity. "What do you mean by that, Inuyasha?" she asked innocently, fingers crossed behind her back as she hoped he'd slip up and tell her something interesting.

"Well, the Embassy's not exactly a _safe_ place to work-" he broke of abruptly. "Nice try." He smirked.

Kagome sighed. "It was close. Only now I'm even _more_ curious."

The other demon in their group wheezed and knocked a bush aside as he lumbered along behind them.

"I think he needs a name," Kagome announced. "Let's call him… Kisho. I think it suits him. He's definitely sure that he wants to follow us."

Inuyasha snorted. "We don't even know if it's a 'he' or a 'she'. And anyway, that'd just _encourage_ it to keep following us." Amber eyes glanced suspiciously at the great beast. "Kisho. 'One who knows his own mind'?"

"You know what I don't understand," the schoolgirl continued, blatantly ignoring Inuyasha's foul mood, "is how demons like him and demons like Shippo are related."

The hanyou paused, ears pricked.

"Whaddaya mean?" Shippo asked, glancing back at the other demon.

"Why are you both demons?" Kagome reiterated. "You're practically human, Shippo. Kisho's more like an animal. Are there two different types of demons, or something?"

The kitsune shrugged. "I dunno. I never really thought about it, because everyone back in the city's like me. Some of them look more like animals, but they're just as intelligent. I've never met any demon that just runs around attacking people until my parents joined the Embassy."

Kagome shrugged. "Maybe it's some sort of regional thing."

She completely missed the odd look that Inuyasha gave her.

(\ /)

(0.0)

( )

"What?" Cerulean eyes widened in incredulity. "You mean… all of them? "

The one survivor only nodded wordlessly, his eyes glazed with the horrors that they'd glimpsed.

Kouga stood up and paced the cave, his movements jerky with shock. "Someone go get him some help." The wolf demon waved his hand vaguely at the survivor.

The wolf demons had lived in the Borderlands for generations upon generations. Too wild and savage to obey any rules but their own, the Council had thrown them out ages ago. The only way that they could return and gain back the honor that they had lost was to get a wolf demon on the Council.

Kouga had thought that the moment for that to happen had come. Unfortunately, things weren't going as planned. The planned raid of Naraku's labs had resulted in the loss of half of their fighting force, not to mention the bruised pride that went with it.

"Who was it?" the leader finally snapped.

Ginta and Hakkaku collectively flinched and glanced nervously at him. "Who was what?"

"Who killed them?" Kouga repeated tersely, slamming his fist into the wall. Rock fragments crumbled away, leaving behind a small crater.

"I'll go ask!" Hakkaku ran out of the cave.

"Me too!" Ginta hurried after him. Niether of them were eager to be left alone with a furious Kouga.

As the sound of their feet faded into the distance, Kouga paced around the cave for a while, his mind a furious, jumbled whirl of wounded rage and vengeance. It didn't take him long to make up his mind.

As the strongest and fastest of his tribe- and as the leader- it was his duty to avenge his comrades against the monster that brought about their death. "Kagura, hm?" He cracked his knuckles. "I wonder if she'll beg for mercy before I kill her."

Without looking back, he rushed out of the cave and towards the Border.

"Kouga?" Ginta's voice echoed out behind him. "Where are you going?" He stood up and hurried to the cave's entrance.

"Where do you _think_ he's going?" Hakkaku reprimanded. "He's going to the Border."

"But there's people with guns! He'll be dead Kouga in less that a minute!" Ginta exclaimed, smacking his forehead with his hand. "Kouga! Come back!" He scrambled down the mountains slope after his leader.

"It's suicide!" Hakkaku added, following his brother. "Let's think of a plan first! Kouga! At least _wait_ for us!"

A baying pack of wolves ran after them, tongues lolling.

(\ /)

(•. •)

( )

"The other side?" Rin asked doubtfully. "Why?"

For the first time since Jaken had met her, the child lost her happy, bouncy appearance. In fact, she looked positively nervous as she clung to Sesshoumaru's leg.

The dog demon shot her a cold look and she reluctantly let go. "I have business there."

"With Naraku?" Jaken asked incredulously. _Because Rin was kidnapped_? _Does he really care that much about a token human child_…?

Sesshoumaru cast a glittering glance in his direction and didn't speak; the look was enough, and Jaken had been in Sesshoumaru's service long enough to know it's meaning- _None of your business_.

Which probably meant "yes" in this case, Jaken thought, glancing jealously at Rin. Although he'd worked for Sesshoumaru for decades, an annoyingly perky child had surpassed him in importance. A _human_ child.

"… I don't wanna go back there," Rin said doubtfully.

"Fine," Jaken sniffed, secretly delighted. "Stay here. We'll come back in about a month."

He turned and followed Sesshoumaru, a smug smile firmly in place on his face. At last! It was just him and Sesshoumaru again, like before. It was just too good to be true! No more annoying little girl! No more babysitting duty!

There was a pause, then; "Wait! I'm coming too! Sesshoumaru-sama!"

Jaken sighed, his shoulders drooping with his good mood. Definitely too good to be true.

(\ /)

(0.0)

( )

"…Wow." Kagome wiped sweat from her brow and stared down the slope. "We climbed that." Down below, the small trail that they'd found dwindled to a small brown tread in a sea of green treetops, sometimes vanishing from sight beneath them.

"And it sure did take a long time," Inuyasha snorted. "If it was just me, we'd be there by now."

"Well, it's not my fault that I'm human," Kagome replied. "Why are you always so… negative about everything, anyway?' she asked, genuinely curious.

"I am _not_ negative about everything," the hanyou retorted sharply. "You just take everything wrong." He glanced up at the sky. "There's a place good place to stop up ahead for the night."

"How far ahead?" Kagome asked. "My legs are _killing_ me!" She glanced unhappily at the steep slope ahead. "I don't wanna walk up that."

"Well, I'm not carrying you," Inuyasha replied, walking ahead. "Just get a move on, will ya? It's less than a mile, I think."

Kagome groaned and trudged after him. "I need a shower," she muttered halfheartedly under her breath. "And food. And an actual bed. And somewhere to wash my clothes."

"Too bad," Inuyasha remarked. "Stop complaining."

"I wasn't complaining!" she retorted, temper rising. "I was talking to myself! You know, it's rude to listen in on other people's conversations."

The hanyou laughed. "And who else is there to talk to, hm?" he asked mockingly.

"Well," Kagome snapped, "there's Kisho and Shippo. And they're better to talk to than you."

"Kisho can't talk," Inuyasha pointed out. Amber eyes flickered in Shippo's direction. "And Shippo's sleeping."

Kagome sighed. "I'm only human, you know." She pitched her voice lower so he wouldn't hear. "And I'm tired, hungry and my only company thinks I'm lower than dirt."

A shell-like white ear twitched in her direction and Inuyasha hesitated for half a second, mouth half open to say something. He shook his head slightly and continued on, his mouth shut.

But Kagome didn't notice; her eyes stayed steadily on the damp earth beneath her feet, stubbornly blinking.

(\ /)

(0.0)

( )

Sango felt like banging her head against her desk. She would've, too, if there hadn't been so much paper everywhere. "I hate paperwork," she told Kirara matter-of-factly.

It wasn't the small demon that answered. "Then why take this job?"

Sango jumped and spun around. "Oh. Hello, Bankotsu," she said guardedly. "Do you need anything?"

Bankotsu shrugged offhandedly. "I was just passing by, that's all." He stepped out again, whistling.

Sango cast a dirty glance at his back and got up to close her door. She happened to know that Bankotsu was a part time mercenary who had no qualms with killing anything that moved. In fact, she wouldn't be surprised if he worked for demons half the time. Not to mention that he didn't actually do anything that the Embassy paid him to do. And that created even more paperwork for her.

She sat down again and surveyed the mess with a sigh. She shuffled one pile of reports in a futile attempt to make her desk a bit more presentable. Where did all this paperwork go, anyway? Statistics, reports, opinions… they didn't change the fact that the Embassy was fighting a losing battle. Humans and demons hadn't been on speaking terms for decades, and nothing they did seemed to make the slightest difference.

Sango drummed her fingers against her desk as she thought. After a pause, she sat up and smiled, shaking her head ruefully. It wasn't her place to question what was going on.

Kirara yawned and stretched, papers rustling beneath her as she rose to her feet. Scarlet eyes wide and black ears perked forward, the small demon cat appeared wary.

Sango glanced at her partner. "What's wrong?" She turned to the door as voices rose from the corridor.

"Oh! It's- hello, Sesshoumaru-sama!" Hachi sounded nervous. "Is there anything that I can do for you, sir?"

"Get out of my lord's way, imbecile!" A pompous voice ordered.

"O-of course, Jaken-san. Excuse me." The door to Miroku's office shut hastily.

Kirara spat, her fur puffy with anxiety as the footsteps stopped in front of the office door. Sango hastily tried to neaten her desk.

Without knocking, the door swung open, revealing a small toad-like demon with a staff and a pompous and commanding air. "Hakaru Sango, my lord Sesshoumaru-" Jaken paused dubiously at Kirara, who'd left the table and adopted her larger form fire flickering around her feet and leaving scorch marks on the rug.

Sango started at the sight of her co-worker. _That's what a true demon looks like_, _beneath the small harmless disguise_. _Still, I'm surprised that she's acting like this towards one of her own kind_.

The dog demon stepped into the room and looked impassively at Sango. "You have reports on the activities of Harakuto Biomedical Corporation. Give it to me."

"Of course. Is that all you'll be needing?" Sango replied calmly. She would've felt more intimidated by her famous and imposing visitor if a little human girl hadn't been hiding behind him, almost clinging to his leg.

Cold amber eyes flickered in Kirara's direction, scornfully.

Jaken, who prided himself in his ability to understand each of Sesshoumaru's actions and expressions, puffed out his chest and pointed his staff at the spitting fire cat. "Silence!"

Grudgingly, Kirara shrank into a small kitten, her fur still puffed out with hostility.

Sango hurried over to the file cabinet and pulled out the reports. There wasn't much; the Embassy didn't deal much with medical companies. She handed them to Sesshoumaru. "There you go."

The dog demon paused and glanced at the report. He let it drop the floor and briefly examined the next. "These are useless to me."

"I'm sorry, sir," Sango replied. "Those are all we have."

Without replying, he turned and walked out, Jaken apologizing profusely to his employer and the odd little girl silent as she followed along behind.

Sango watched them leave, perplexed. "That's something to note," she murmured.

Kirara's fur settled down and she returned to her favorite spot on top of the computer monitor.

Sango glanced at the four scorch marks on the floor, then at the fire cat. _Things aren't as they appear_. _They never are, are they_, _Father_?

She sighed and tried to focus on her work. She picked up a stack of papers and shuffled through them distractedly. "…hey…" she said slowly. "Hey, Miroku!" She knocked on the wall.

In the other office, Miroku heard the thump and looked up from the magazine he was reading. He rolled his chair back until he could poke his head out of his office. "Yes, Sango? Do you need me?"

"No," came the sharp reply. "I need your report. The one that was due last week."

"Uh oh," Hachi said cheerfully. "Good luck, Miroku-kun!"

"Coming!" he rolled back into the desk space and shuffled hurriedly through the mess. Lowering his voice, he asked his partner, "Hachi! Do you know where I put that thing?"

"Which one?" the tanuki was busy with a Rubix cube.

"The one on stress over the past 5 years!" He dropped a pencil sharpener. The shavings fluttered down across the carpet like snow."Whoops!"

"Oh! I turned that in already!" With a sigh of frustration, he set the cube on the table. "I've been working on this for weeks, and I just can't get the green side together! Miroku, do you know anything about these things?"

"Nope." Miroku sloppily shoveled the shavings into the sharpener again. "Are you _sure_, Hachi?"

"Yeah…" Hachi picked up the cube again.

"Miroku!" Sango demanded again. "I _need_ that report!"

Miroku sighed defeatedly and stood up. "Goodbye Hachi. Just in case I never see you again, I'd like to say that it's been a pleasure working with you."

"Thanks."

He trudged into the next room. "Sango, I don't have the report. Hachi said that he already gave it to you."

Sango waved him over to her desk, saying as she did so, "Well, I don't have it, and I don't know where it could've gone."

Meanwhile, her pen raced across a spare scrap of paper.

_Kemotsu Sesshoumaru was here_.

"Hachi said he turned it in," Miroku insisted. He took the pen and wrote, _So I heard. What did he want_?

_Information on Harakuto Biomedical Corp_. _Apparently our reports were "useless"_.

"Miroku, if you didn't do, just tell me."

_Well, I wasn't expecting_ that, _I can tell you_.

"Sango, you insult me. I would never lie to you."

_It_ is _odd, though_… _What does HBC have to do with anything demonic_?

"Somehow I'm not convinced." Sango's voice was wry as she handed the pen to Miroku.

_That's_ my _job to figure out_. _You do your job and I'll do mine_. _Thanks for telling me, though_.

"Do you doubt my heart?" Miroku asked solemnly, grasping Sango's knee with one hand while he continued writing with the other.

"Okay… out!" Sango shoved him away and her lecherous coworker stumbled out of her office.

The scrap of paper fluttered to the floor.

_I'm just trying to make it more convincing_!

Sango shook her head. Any excuse to lay hands on his female coworkers.

(•.•)

--( • )--

Mrs. Higurashi sighed and wiped her hands on a dishtowel. Placing the last dish on the dish rack, she wandered into the living room and settled down in the old armchair where her father would usually sit as he read the newspaper, a steaming mug of tea sitting on the table or in his hand.

Her eyes wandered across the familiar areas of the room; the couch where Souta would play with Buyo, the desk where Kagome kept her homework, the empty litter box sitting discreetly in the corner. The scratch on the floorboards where her husband had dropped a set of drawers, years ago. But now it was just her and the weekly letters from Souta and her father. In fact, nearly everything personal had been moved from the house and into the old temple where Souta and her father were staying.

Mrs, Higurashi knew that it was only a matter of time before the mobs stormed her house. It couldn't remain a secret that hers was the house that had harbored so many fugitives. When that day came, she would run through the back and go live in the temple with Souta and Mr. Higurashi. That way, nothing precious would be broken.

The only thing that she couldn't bear to move was a family photo taken seven years ago. It was a picture of the five of them, standing beneath the awning of a store on a winter night, paper lanterns lighting the scene with a soft orange glow.

Mrs. Higurashi often found herself staring at the photo, each time picking out little details that she hadn't noticed before. It was a good way to keep her focus and soothe her constantly-tense nerves.

Unfortunately, it was getting harder and harder to pick out little things of interest in the picture that she hadn't seen before.

(\ /)

(•. •)

( )

Inuyasha halted so abruptly that it was obvious even from behind him that he was very shocked. After a moment of silent contemplation, his ears pressed flat against his head with agitation, he spoke. "…This wasn't where I had in mind."

"Too bad." Kagome dropped her backpack on the ground and sighed, rubbing her shoulder. She shot an irritated glance at the hanyou as he hopped brusquely into a tree and ignored her, a disturbed expression on his face. Grumbling, she rummaged around in the pack and yanked out a towel.

In substitution of the nice, hot, refreshing bath that she wanted, she doused the towel in water from her canteen and wiped her face and neck.

Well, Inuyasha was right about something, at least. The campsite couldn't have been just a simple clearing. For one thing, there was a concrete foundation on the ground with old twisted metal supports rising from them as if contorted by pain. However, whatever building had once been there was now long gone. Noticing the old scorch marks on the ground, Kagome guessed it was by fire.

Despite her exhaustion, she wondered what had caused such a strong reaction in Inuyasha. _Well, I don't care_, she thought mulishly as she placed out the tarp and then her sleeping bag. _Actually, I'm really, really curious_. _Inuyasha may be grumpy most of the time, but even for him that was pretty bad_. _I wonder why this place bothers him_?

She sighed and settled out in the sleepingbag, eyes staring up at the sky above, unable to sleep.

Farther away, up in a tree, a white ear swiveled to catch the sound of a rustling sleeping bag as Kagome settled down for the night. Inuyasha didn't notice, though. He was preoccupied by a swirling torrent of memories that threw his mind in turmoil. _Why here_? _I thought this place was miles away_. _I can't believe it_. _I thought we were near the camping grounds_…

Grudgingly, amber eyes glanced at the remains of the building. _It's all rotted away_. _Everything except the concrete and metal_. But even then, the place was beyond recognizable; it felt familiar and sad. He turned away, brooding. _I wish that would just melt away, too_. _Then maybe I could just forget about it all_.

His eyes traced the outlines of the sturdy, weathered blocks of concrete and the contorted metal, his memory filling in what he remembered. The walls had been made of wood. Old, weathered redwood, like the trees surrounding it. He knew that it hadn't been all that tall- just two stories high, but for some reason he remembered the building as towering.

A small, grim, smile twitched at the corners of his lips. _Oh, that's right_. _I was still a kid back then_.

The windows were made of thick glass, like the kind used in aquariums, and was probably about three inches thick, if the tapping sound that his claws made against it was anything to go by. The building was a large rectangle shape, with a big courtyard in the middle. _No, not big_, he corrected. _Big for a little kid_. And there was a pond in the middle, with a little bridge and an elegant wooden bench where-

He stopped abruptly. _It's been decades_. _Why does it hurt so much to remember_?

Another memory rose to the surface of his troubled mind.

"_Are you so desperate to know, Inuyasha_? _Do you really want to know what separates a human from a hanyou from a demon_?_ Is that why you're here, on the other side of the Border_?"

"_What's it to you, Sesshoumaru_? _Fuck off!_"

_I'll tell you_. _Humans are weak and spineless. They live and die in an instant_. _They are but a temporary annoyance_. _Hanyou are disgusting beasts_. _They should not exist, they do not deserve to exist; a perversion of nature_. _The weak soul of a human and some small demonic traits._ _Unfortunately, they last longer than humans_, _unless you_ remove _them_…"

"_Shit_!"

"_And true youkai are the strongest_, _the oldest_, _the purest_ _and the best of the three_. _The perfect mechanism_; _when the time comes_, _there is_ _no doubt, no fear, no hesitation_. _That is something a **hanyou** like you will never understand_."

Maybe Sesshoumaru was right, after all. _That bastard_.

"Inuyasha?" The voice came from below his leafy sanctuary.

The hanyou flinched and looked down. "Kagome? What are you doing?"

"Well," the schoolgirl admitted grudgingly, "I was wondering if you're okay. You looked really startled when we got here."

"I'm fine," he replied roughly.

Kagome sighed. "You know, you _can_ tell me. If you want to."

He thought about it for a moment. "Yeah."

There was a long pause as Kagome waited for him to say something more. "Okay." She sounded disappointed. "Well, goodnight."

"'Night," he replied. As her footsteps faded away and the sleeping bag rustled again, he said, "But not for me." _I don't think I'm going to be able to sleep at all tonight_.

(•.•)

--( • )--

When Kagome woke up then next morning, the first thing she was aware of was a large rusted bucket of steaming water sitting next to her. She scrambled to sit up, barely able to believe it.

"What, aren't you going to say 'thank you'?" Shippo demanded, huffing. "It took me a long time to get that water hot!" A small blue flame flickered on his fingers.

Kagome grinned. "Thank you, Shippo! I really owe you! I can _wash_!"

"Well," the kitsune admitted sheepishly, "It was Inuyasha who found the shed and the bucket… And the well…"

"Then thanks for heating it up!" She stumbled out of the sleeping bag, wincing at the soreness of her legs and grabbed her towel. She swung it over one shoulder and bent to grab the rusted water container. "Ow! It's hot!" She jumped back, blowing on her fingers.

"…Oh. I didn't think of that," Shippo stated.

"Well, I guess I could hang the sleeping bag up with the tent poles…" She slumped slightly at the delay.

A few minutes later, the makeshift shelter was in place and Kagome ventured in cautiously. "This better not fall down while I'm in there…" she muttered to herself.

Half an hour had gone by before Inuyasha ran out of patience. "Hey, Kagome! Get a move on!"

Even Inuyasha couldn't ruin her feeling of peace. "Almost done!" She shouted back. "Gimme a while!"

Grumbling, the hanyou wandered back into the forest and away from the wrecked skeleton of the building.

Shippo followed him curiously. "Hey, Inuyasha…" he began. "Why are you acting so weird? You keep avoiding the campsite."

Inuyasha swung around, dealt a stinging blow to the overly-inquisitive kitsune and turned again, stomping deeper into the forest. "It's none of your business. Go and bother Kagome, or something."

"Fine, Dog Boy! You can go be stupid by yourself!" But Inuyasha was already out of sight. "I don't care about your stupid problems!"

He'd already been walking for at least five minutes when he realized he was out of hearing range of… there. Inuyasha turned around and headed back, both ears twitching avidly to catch any sound that could mean trouble, but there was nothing, so he took his time.

Gradually, the sound of Kagome's voice reached his ears. Shoulders that he didn't know were tense relaxed. She was out of the bath and they could leave, finally. "Okay!" He hollered through the trees, impatient. "Let's go!"

"I'm almost ready! I just need to put this tent stuff away… Whoops!"

Inuyasha snorted impatiently and stepped into the clearing, keeping his eyes away from the ruined, skeletal remains behind Kagome. "Give it."

Sheepishly, she handed the sticks over, then the small bag. "Here."

Deftly, he pulled the poles apart and shoved them in the bag. "There. What are you staring at?"

Kagome pulled her eyes away from the ruins and handed the next pole. "Nothing." She paused again to glance at the ruins before grabbing her backpack.

"C'mon." Inuyasha shouldered his own backpack and strode out of the clearing. He turned impatiently. "Kagome!"

"Yeah, I know!" She turned away from the building and followed after him, Shippo sitting comfortably on her shoulder.

"What were you looking at, anyway?" the small kitsune inquired.

Kagome paused for a moment. "You know that square area in the middle of the building, like a courtyard or something?"

"Yeah. What about it?"

"Well, I could've sworn that it was empty last night… but then when I got out of my sleeping bag, I saw something in it. It was a bench made out of wood."

Shippo shrugged. "That's not so weird. It was dark last night and you probably just didn't see it."

"Yeah," she replied doubtfully. "But the funny thing is, the wood's new and the rest of the building's old. Besides, if there was a fire, the bench would've burned down, too…"

"Huh. That's weird," he replied idly. "Oh well."

Kagome didn't reply. _Maybe it **was** just my imagination_… _But if it was, then did I imagine Inuyasha sitting on it last night, too_?

(\ /)

(•. •)

( )

Kouga realized that he had a problem on his hands. And not just a small problem, either. "How do we get over the Border?"

"I don't know!" Hakkaku threw up his hands in exasperation as he stumbled forward.

"Maybe you should've thought that out _before_ you rushed away," Ginta added, huffing. The wolves came after in groups, tongues lolling as they collapsed in small groups on the ground. Their sides heaved from fatigue.

"Kouga, lets stop for a while and think about this," Hakkaku urged. "We need a plan to figure out how to get over the wall."

"Well," Ginta said, "How did the others get over the wall?"

Kouga shrugged. "I dunno. They didn't talk about it with me." He sat down on a rock to think about it.

"Do you know what they use to guard the border?" Ginta asked Hakkaku.

The other wolf demon thought for a moment. "Well, guns… and people. They have towers, too, and there's the cliff. They have defenses on that, too, I think. But there are places where there's nothing at all, too, which doesn't make any sense. But that's humans for you."

"No, there's gotta be a reason," argued Hakkaku. "Otherwise, we could just go through whenever we wanted."

"Cant's we?" Kouga replied absently. "How else would the others have gotten in? They're not particularly powerful."

"But then why would all sorts of demons go through?"

"Do you really need to ask?" Kouga said bitterly. "Naraku would snatch them in an instance. The only ones he doesn't take are the ones in the Embassy and ones like Kemotsu Sesshoumaru, who're too strong for him."

"So why don't we join the Embassy?" Ginta asked jokingly. "It's can't be any worse that charging in there and getting killed, if you ask me."

It might've been meant as a joke, but Kouga took Ginta's comment seriously. "Good idea, Ginta." He stood up and turned around. "Okay. We're going to the city." With a strong surge of wind, he was gone.

"Great idea, Ginta!" Hakkaku remarked gloomily. "'I've got an idea! Let's go join the Embassy and get ourselves killed by _other_ demons instead of Naraku!' Are you an idiot?"

"It was a _joke_! I didn't think that he'd take it seriously!" the other wolf demon protested. "This is insane!"

(\ /)

(•. •)

( )

AN: Woooow… that took a while. I sat in front of my computer for 4 hours to finish this. My back hurts now.

Anyway, I hope you liked it! I think I added a bit to much angsty-fluffy stuff for the relationship between Inuyasha and Kagome as it is now… oh well. Questions, comments, ect, you know what to do.

Thank you for reading!


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